:?i^^t^^§$'^^^  wj^T! '' 


NOV  27  1920 


A 


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A 


BV  2766  .P6  T5  1919 
Thompson,  Charles  Lemuel, 

1839-1924. 
The  soul  of  America 


The  Soul  of  America 


The  Soul  of  America 

The  Contribution  of  Presbyterian 
Home  Missions.  12 mo,  illustrated, 
cloth,  net  $\.1S\    paper,  net  50c. 

A  lucid,  clearly  defined  statement  of  what 
has  been  done  on  the  North  American  con- 
tinent, in  Home  Mission  field  by  the  Pres- 
byterian Church. 


The  Religious  Foundations 
of  America 

12mo,  cloth,  net  $1.50. 

**The  400th  anniversary  of  the  Reforma- 
tion makes  this  a  timely  treatise,  as  well  as 
a  storehouse  of  valuable  information — polit- 
ical, historic  and  religious.  ...  A  valuable 
cyclopedia  of  the  religious  beginnings  of  our 
country.*' — The  Missionary  Survey. 


The  Soul  of  America 


The  Contribution  of  Presbyterian 
Home  Missions 


'OV  27  1920 


^/  BY 

Charles  LemuelThompson,  D.  D.  ,  LL.  D. 

Secretary  Emeritus 

Author  of  The  Story  of  the  Presbyterian  Church'' 

"The  Religious  Foundations  of  America,'' 

"Etchings  in  Verst,"  etc. 


New  York  Chicago 

Fleming    H.    Revell    Company 

London        and        Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1919,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


Printed  in  United  States  of  America 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago :  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:     75    Princes    Street 


To 

The  Board  of  Home  Missions 

and 

The  Womaji's  Board  of  Home  Missions 

of  the 

Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A. 

In  memory  of  a  long  fellowship 

This  book  is  dedicated. 


FOREWORD 

IN  these  days  of  crowded  libraries  every  new  book 
should  be  able  to  give  a  reason  for  its  existence. 
This  then  is  not  a  full  history  of  the  Christian 
missions  of  America,  nor  even  a  full  account  of  the 
Presbyterian  share  in  that  great  enterprise.  It  is  an  at- 
tempt to  outline  the  missionary  adventure  in  two  re- 
spects. First,  to  trace  home  missions  as  an  organiza- 
tion from  the  time  when  the  germ  of  it  was  in  a  small 
Committee  with  indefinite  powers  to  this  latter  day  of 
enlarged  tasks  and  increased  opportunity.  In  the 
second  place,  to  show  the  development  of  the  work  of 
home  missions  from  the  time  when  it  was  the  outreach 
of  a  feeble  hand  of  help  to  settlers  on  the  borders  of  a 
great  wilderness  to  this  day,  when  it  comprises  many 
new  departures,  yet  all  on  the  stock  of  its  original 
charter. 

The  hamlet  in  the  wilderness  has  become  a  great 
city  and  calls  for  help  for  all  its  congested  and  im- 
perilled multitudes.  The  Anglo-Saxon  message  of  the 
first  century  must  now  be  translated  into  forty  tongues 
and  must  be  adapted  to  forty  various  inheritances  and 
conditions.  John  Eliot's  message  to  aborigines  must 
be  enlarged  to  take  into  consideration  physical,  social 
and  tribal  peculiarities.  The  gospel  preached  to  primi- 
tive country  people  must  be  united  with  community 
service  that  will  arrest  the  moral  and  intellectual  de- 
cline which  solitude  has  enforced.  The  old-time  call 
which  was  the  same  for  rich  and  poor  must  now  take 

7 


8  FOREWORD 

account  of  industrial  and  economic  conflicts  and  must 
point  and  lead  the  way  out  to  a  real  brotherhood  of 
people,  founded  on  the  Gospel  of  Micah,  that  God  re- 
quires of  all  men  and  all  groups  of  men  to  do  justly, 
to  love  mercy  and  to  walk  humbly  with  God. 

In  its  first  century  the  Board  was  engaged  in  a  great 
territorial  expansion.  It  covered  the  breadth  of  the 
continent.  In  the  last  few  decades  it  has  added  to 
this,  topical  expansion.  The  new  frontiers  are  in  new 
social,  industrial  and  moral  conditions.  To  meet  them 
home  missions  must  expand  in  directions  not  contem- 
plated fifty  years  ago..  No  longer  merely  a  matter 
of  virginal  areas  of  land,  it  now  must  grapple  with 
what  comes  after  the  land  has  been  occupied.  This 
book  is  an  attempt  to  present  the  activities  of  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions  and  the  Woman's  Board  of 
Home  Missions  in  view  especially  of  the  conditions 
that  have  demanded  attention  during  the  past  genera- 
tion. 

It  is  not  claimed  that  these  Boards  have  adequately 
met  or  fully  solved  these  problems.  The  following 
pages  will,  however,  indicate  that  they  have  some 
vision  of  new  duties  and  are  somewhat  alive  to  new 
responsibilities. 

This  book  is  primarily  a  statement  of  some  of  the 
work  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  It  is,  however, 
written  from  the  American  rather  than  the  denomina- 
tional point  of  view.  It  has  made  at  least  passing  ref- 
erence to  other  communions  and  has  tried  to  empha- 
size the  fact  that  the  Kingdom  is  above  any  denomi- 
nation. It  records  the  contribution  one  body  of  Chris- 
tians has  made,  but  in  full  and  grateful  recognition  of 
the  equally  important  service  of  other  bodies  toiling  in 


FOREWORD  9 

the  same  great  field.  Only  by  regarding  the  achieve- 
ments of  one  regiment  in  the  Lord's  army  of  occupa- 
tion as  related  to  the  others,  only  by  lining  up  the  ad- 
vance of  the  various  detachments  into  one  compre- 
hensive and  conquering  march,  will  we  get  the  true 
perspective  of  the  progress  of  the  Kingdom. 

C.  L.  T. 
Nezv  York  City, 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.  Early  Days    15 

II.  Beginnings  of  Organization   28 

III.  The  First  Synod  and  General  Assembly  39 

IV.  Over  the  Alleghenies  52 

V.  The  American  Indians 75 

VI.  From  the  Mississippi  to  the  Yukon  ....  104 

VII.  Immigration    134 

VIII.  City  Missions  and  Social  Service 150 

IX.  Country  Church  and  Mountaineers  ....  172 

X.  Spanish-Speaking   People    201 

XI.  Woman's  Board  of  Home  Missions 218 

XII.  The  Call  of  the  Hour 232 

Appendix    245 


II 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

IMAGING  PAG^ 

Boys  of  Menaul  School,  Albuquerque,  New  Mex- 
ico   Title 

Chauncey  Yellow  Robe 76 

Sheldon  Jackson  School,  Sitka,  Alaska 122 

Immigrants  from  Siberia 124 

Class  at  Gary  Neighborhood  House,  Gary,  Indiana  164 

Gary  Neighborhood  House,  Gary,  Indiana 164 

A  Typical  Country  Church 174 

Jarrold's  Valley,  West  Virginia,  Sunday  School  .  174 

Poultry  Club,  Rocky  Fork,  Tennessee 184 

Canning  Club,  Rocky  Fork,  Tennessee 184 

A  Lumber  Camp  of  the  Northwest 188 

A  "Loading  Donkey"  and  Crew 188 

A  Missionary's  Home  as  She  Finds  It 194 

A  Missionary's  Home  as  She  Develops  It  ......  194 

Normal  and  Collegiate  Institute,  Asheville,  North 

Carolina    196 

Some  Girls  of  Normal  and  Collegiate  Institute, 

Asheville,  North  Carolina 196 

Community   Headquarters,   White   Rock,   North 

Carolina    200 

Laurel  Hospital,  White  Rock,  North  Carolina  . . .  200 

Southern  Mountaineer's  Home 200 

President's    New    Home,    Polytechnic    Institute, 

San  German,  Porto  Rico 204 

Class  in  Physics,  Polytechnic  Institute,  San  Ger- 
man, Porto  Rico 204 

San  Juan  Hospital,  Porto  Rico 208 

Boys  of  the  Cardenas  School,  Cuba 210 

Class  in  Christian  Americanization 228 

13 


EARLY  DAYS 

A  HI  STORY  of  missions  as  developed  by  the 
Presbyterian  Church  through  its  Board  of 
Home  Missions  makes  it  necessary  to  remem- 
ber that  missionary  activity  in  this  country  antedates 
by  a  century  any  organized  missionary  work  and  to 
trace,  at  least  briefly,  the  earlier  occupation  of  the 
country  by  Christian  forces.  The  Mayflower  was  a 
great  home  mission  adventure.  The  very  earliest  set- 
tlements anywhere  on  the  Atlantic  Coast  were  religious 
in  character. 

The  persecution  of  Protestant  Christianity  in  Great 
Britain  and  on  the  Continent  drove  God's  people  from 
various  lands  and  of  various  creeds  to  seek  a  refuge 
elsewhere  and  to  plant  those  seeds  of  Christian  truth 
on  a  congenial  soil,  the  planting  and  growth  of  which 
they  were  sure  would  determine  the  future  civilization 
of  the  world.  So  the  Pilgrims  came  to  New  England, 
the  Hollanders  to  New  York,  the  Scotch  and  Welsh 
and  Irish  Protestants  to  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania, 
the  Swedes  to  the  Delaware,  the  Quakers  and  Germans 
to  Pennsylvania  and  the  Huguenots  to  the  Carolinas. 
All  these  were  exiles  for  conscience  and  for  the  gos- 
pel's sake. 

Puritans.  Most  of  the  Presbyterians  were  Puri- 
tans,— people,  that  is,  who  had  broken  with  the  Church 
of  England  and  were  inclined  to  self-government  in 

15 


i6  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

ecclesiastical  affairs.  Later  they  became  Congrega- 
tionalists  or  Presbyterians,  according  as  they  favored 
absolute  independence  of  each  Church  or  adopted  in- 
dependence with  representative  government. 

Under  these  circumstances  a  fully  developed  form 
of  government  came  gradually.  Sometimes  the  Pres- 
byterianism  was  manifested  only  by  the  pastor  or  min- 
ister gathering  a  few  believers  around  him.  Gradually 
some  of  these  believers  had  responsibility  put  upon 
them,  and  so  a  form  of  responsible  government  devel- 
oped, conforming  to  the  model  of  historic  'Presbyter- 
ianism.  Thus,  one  of  the  earliest  ministers  to  Virginia 
came  over  with  the  adventurous  Virginia  colony,  in 
1608.  Alexander  Whitaker,  the  self-denying  "Apostle 
of  Virginia,"  was  the  son  of  a  Puritan  professor  of 
divinity  in  Cambridge.  That  he  himself  was  essen- 
tially Presbyterian  is  manifest  from  the  fact  that  he 
wrote  of  the  affairs  of  the  colony,  saying,"Here  neither 
surplice  nor  subscription  is  spoken  of."  And  that  his 
church  services  and  government  corresponded  to  the 
Presbyterian  model  is  evident  from  his  description  of 
those  services.  Whitaker  organized  an  informal  con- 
gregational presbytery.    He  writes,  June,  1614: 

"Every  Sabbath  Day  we  preach  in  the  forenoon,  and 
catechize  in  the  afternoon.  Every  Saturday,  at  night, 
I  exercise  in  Sir  Thomas  Dale's  house.  Our  church 
affairs  be  consulted  on  by  the  minister  and  four  of  the 
most  religious  men.  Once  every  month  we  have  a 
communion,  and  once  a  year  a  solemn  fast." 

In  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  there  was  from 
the  first  a  strong  tendency  to  Presbyterian  polity.  The 
churches  were  usually  organized  on  an  independent 
basis.    It  could  not  be  otherwise.    There  was  no  ec- 


EARLY  DAYS  17 

clesiastical  body  to  which  they  could  be  attached.  They 
were  a  few  faithful  souls  in  a  wilderness. 

The  Church  was  at  first  in  every  man's  heart.  Cot- 
ton Mather  reports  Mr.  Higginson,  the  first  elder,  as 
saying : 

"We  go  to  practice  the  positive  part  of  Church  ref- 
ormation and  propagate  the  gospel  in  America." 

Presbyterian  Government.  The  first  churches  or- 
ganized usually  had  one  or  more  elders  associated  with 
the  minister  in  the  government  of  the  congregation. 
This  was  Presbyterianism.  Dr.  Briggs  names  the  fol- 
lowing prominent  ministers  as  holding  the  Presby- 
terian form  of  government:  Thomas  Parker  and 
James  Noyes,  of  Newbury,  Massachusetts;  John 
Eliot,  the  apostle  to  the  Indians;  Peter  Hobart,  of 
Hengham ;  John  Young  and  Richard  Denton,  of  Long 
Island.  Presbyterianism  thus  had  an  early  footing  in 
New  England.  That  it  later  lost  much  of  it  cannot 
dim  the  glorious  fact  that  the  Mayflower  carried  the 
seeds  of  that  form  of  church  development  which  later 
in  other  parts  of  the  country  came  to  be  so  large  a 
factor  in  American  life. 

Circumstances  necessitated  a  gradual  change  in 
church  polity.  A  Congregationalized  Presbyterianism 
spread  through  New  England.  Later  the  preponder- 
ance of  immigration  from  England  turned  the  scales 
and  New  England  became  the  American  home  of  the 
Congregational  form  of  church  government. 

Perhaps  a  different  story  might  have  been  told  of 
Presbyterianism  in  New  England  if  a  storm  at  sea  had 
not  interfered.  In  1736  the  Governor  of  New  Eng- 
land invited  the  persecuted  Scotch  Presbyterians  of 
Ireland  to  come  to  New  England.     On   September 


i8  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

ninth,  one  hundred  and  forty  of  them  set  sail  in  the 
Eagle's  Wing  to  transplant  Scotch  Presbyterianism 
to  New  England.  Disasters  overtook  the  vessel  and 
they  were  compelled  to  return.  Concerning  this  ill- 
fated  voyage  Samuel  Rutherford  wrote  to  John 
Stuart : 

"I  would  not  have  you  think  it  strange  that  journey 
to  New  England  has  gotten  such  a  dash;  it  indeed 
hath  made  my  heart  heavy ;  yet  I  know  it  is  no  dumb 
providence,  but  a  speaking  one  whereby  our  Lord 
speaketh  his  mind  to  you,  though  for  the  present  ye  do 
not  well  understand  what  he  saith.  However  it  be,  He 
that  sitteth  upon  the  floods  hath  shown  you  his  mar- 
vellous kindness  in  the  great  depths If  I  saw 

a  call  for  New  England  I  would  follow  it." 

Presbyterian  Cooperation.  Presbyterians  are  said 
to  be  positive  in  their  convictions  and  ways.  And  yet 
even  in  those  early  days  in  New  England  they  were 
willing  to  join  with  independents  in  a  modified  Con- 
gregationalism, and  for  a  long  time  the  two  coop- 
erated in  county  associations.  This  accommodation  to 
the  necessities  of  the  times  gradually  passed  away,  but 
the  spirit  of  cooperation  in  the  Presbyterian  Church 
happily  remains.  It  appeared  in  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  in  the  union  church  formed  in 
New  York  State  and  elsewhere,  in  which  Congrega- 
tionalists  and  Presbyterians  united  in  churches  which 
should  belong  to  one  or  the  other  body,  as  circum- 
stances might  determine.  And  it  appears  to-day  in 
the  fact  that  Presbyterians  are  among  the  first  in 
pleading  for  cooperative  movements  and  steps  toward 
a  more  united  Church.  Thus,  the  General  Assembly 
of  1918  declared  its  profound  conviction  that  the  time 


EARLY  DAYS  19 

has  come  for  organic  union  and  asked  the  national 
bodies  of  the  evangelical  communions  of  America  to 
meet  for  the  purpose  of  formulating  a  Plan  of  Or- 
ganic Union. 

Evangelization  of  Indians.  In  view  of  the  subse- 
quent history  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  first 
missionary  steps  were  directed  to  the  evangelization 
of  the  Indians. 

Thus  the  first  charter  granted  the  colonies  was  one 
to  the  Presbyterian  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  1628, 
which  declares  that  *'to  win  and  incite  the  natives  of 
the  country  to  the  knowledge  and  obedience  of  the 
only  true  God  and  Savior  of  mankind  and  the  Chris- 
tian faith  was  in  the  royal  intention  and  the  adven- 
turers free  profession  the  principal  end  of  this  planta- 
tion." 

Society  for  Propagation  o£  the  Gospel.  Under 
this  impulse  the  Puritan  ministers  of  England  and 
Scotland  pressed  a  petition  on  parliament  for  the 
propagation  of  the  gospel  in  America.  The  result  was 
an  organization  known  as  the  Society  for  the  Propa- 
gation of  the  Gospel  in  New  England.  This  was  in 
1649.  'The  Society  was  authorized  "to  receive  and 
dispose  of  monies  in  such  manner  as  shall  best  and 
principally  conduce  to  the  preaching  and  propagating 
of  the  gospel  amongst  the  natives  and  for  the  main- 
tenance of  schools  and  nurseries  of  learning  for  the 
education  of  the  children  of  the  natives." 

To  support  this  noble  purpose  collections  were  or- 
dered through  all  towns  and  parishes  "as  the  founda- 
tion of  so  pious  and  great  an  undertaking."  The  first 
collection  amounted  to  about  sixty  thousand  dollars. 


20  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

After  a  few  years  a  new  and  ampler  charter 
was  granted.  Its  terms  were  enlarged.  It  was  en- 
titled "A  Society  or  Company  for  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  New  England  and  the  Parts  Adjacent  in 
America."  Later,  Indian  missions  were  prophesied 
in  its  statement  that  in  addition  to  evangelistic  labors 
its  objects  should  be  the  "nourishing,  teaching  and  in- 
structing the  said  heathen  natives  and  their  children, 
not  only  in  the  principles  and  knowledge  of  the  true 
religion,  and  in  morality,  and  the  knowledge  of  the 
English  tongue,  and  in  other  liberal  arts  and  sciences, 
but  for  the  educating  and  placing  of  them  or  their 
children  in  some  trade,  ministry,  or  lawful  calling." 

This  society  sustained  thus  generously  by  the  Pres- 
byterian Churches  of  Great  Britain  nearly  four  cen- 
turies ago  would,  one  would  think,  have  prophesied 
much  greater  results  from  Indian  evangelization  than 
the  subsequent  generations  attained. 

John  Eliot.  The  pious  zeal  and  heroism  of  one  lone 
missionary  to  the  Indians  was  the  main  incentive  to 
the  noble  action  of  British  Presbyterians.  John  Eliot 
was  the  mainspring  of  it  all.  This  great  "Apostle  to 
the  Indians"  came  to  Massachusetts  in  1631.  For 
fourteen  years  he  gave  himself  to  the  study  of  the 
Algonquin,  conscious  of  the  fact  so  often  illustrated  in 
the  history  of  missions  that  only  so  could  he  gain  real 
effective  entrance  for  gospel  truth.  He  then  began  his 
great  work  of  the  translation  of  the  entire  Bible  into 
Algonquin.  It  was  the  first  book  that  came  from  the 
American  press, 

Eliot  was  not  only  a  great  scholar  and  preacher. 
He  was  a  great  organizer  as  well.  Little  Indian  vil- 
lages were  gathered  about  the  colonists'  villages  that 


EARLY  DAYS  21 

the  natives  might  be  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  co- 
lonial Christian  life.  Forty  years  after  he  began  his 
arduous  labors  there  were  six  churches  of  baptized 
Indians  in  New  England,  eighteen  assemblies  of  cate- 
chumens and  twenty-four  Indian  preachers.  The  large 
number  of  native  preachers  testifies  to  his  zeal  in  pro- 
moting Christian  education  among  the  converts,  that 
they  might  become  missionaries  to  their  own  people. 
His  far-seeing  vision  of  a  socialized  Christianity  is 
evinced  by  the  fact  that  as  early  as  165 1  he  had  se- 
cured a  grant  of  land  for  an  Indian  settlement.  It 
was  called  "Natick."  The  town  remains  as  a  witness 
and  reminder  of  a  missionary  policy  as  sagacious  as 
ever  this  world  has  witnessed.  For  a  form  of  civil 
government  Eliot  suggested  what  Jethro  proposed  to 
Moses.  The  result  was  a  theocratic  Christian  Indian 
government.  In  thirty  years  the  Christian  Indians 
numbered  eleven  thousand  and  had  schools  in  fourteen 
towns. 

This  mention  of  Eliot's  work  for  and  among  the 
New  England  Indians  is  called  for  in  a  history  of 
Presbyterian  home  missions  by  the  fact  that  he  was 
himself  a  Presbyterian  and  introduced  the  "Congre- 
gational Presbytery"  among  his  converts.  Differences 
between  Congregationalists  and  Presbyterians  in  the 
matter  of  church  government  prevented  the  extension 
of  Presbyterian  polity  from  the  individual  congrega- 
tions to  the  presbytery  and  synod,  but  the  genius  of 
Eliot  and  his  associates  was  thoroughly  Presbyterian. 

From  the  beginning  the  care  of  the  Indians  was  dear 
to  their  hearts.  One  of  the  first  missionaries  among 
the  Indians  was  the  Rev.  Azariah  Horton.  He  was 
supported  by  a   Scottish  Missionary  Society  and  in 


22  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

1 74 1  began  labors  on  Long  Island  which  were  so  suc- 
cessful that  in  a  short  time  he  baptized  thirty-five 
adults  and  forty-four  children. 

David  Brainerd.  Among  the  best-known  Presby- 
terian workers  for  the  Indians  was  the  Rev.  David 
Brainerd  who,  in  1744,  was  ordained  a  missionary  by 
the  Presbytery  of  New  York.  He  labored  extensively 
in  Connecticut,  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey.  His 
greatest  work  was  done  in  New  Jersey.  Of  this  Dr. 
Ashbel  Green  wrote : 

"His  success  here  was  perhaps  without  a  parallel 
in  heathen  missions  since  the  days  of  the  apostles." 

On  his  death,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty  years,  he 
was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  John  Brainerd.  The 
salaries  of  both  were  furnished  by  the  Scottish  So- 
ciety. 

Organized  work  for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  is 
of  recent  origin.  This  will  be  presented  in  a  later 
chapter  and  is  referred  to  here  only  to  show  that  the 
first  home  mission  work  on  this  continent  was  chiefly 
in  the  interest  of  the  natives.  The  Revolutionary 
War  stayed  the  efforts  at  Indian  evangelization  for 
almost  twenty-five  years. 

We  have  alluded  to  the  fact  that  much  of  the  earli- 
est immigration  to  New  England  was  of  Presbyterian 
lineage  and  always  of  a  missionary  temper.  The  chief 
home  of  Presbyterianism,  however,  was  to  be  in  the 
colonies  south  of  New  England,  though  that  coloniza- 
tion came  first  by  way  of  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut. The  strength  of  the  missionary  impulse  is 
recognized  by  the  fact  that  Boston  sent  missionaries 
to  the  banks  of  the  Delaware.  It  is  probable  that  the 
first  Puritan  minister  in  the  Empire  State  was  the 


EARLY  DAYS  23 

Rev.  John  Young,  who  organized  a  country  church 
in  Southold,  Long  Island,  in  1640.  The  first  Pres- 
byterian minister  who  brought  a  colony  to  Long  Island 
was  Abraham  Pierson,  an  English  clergyman  who 
went  to  New  England  in  1639  and  two  years  later 
carried  his  little  flock  to  Southampton,  Long  Island. 
A  few  years  later  we  find  him  at  Branford,  Connecti- 
cut, but  in  1667  he  moved  to  Newark,  New  Jersey,  and 
established  there  the  first  Presbyterian  church. 

Francis  Doughty.  We  know  more  of  the  third  Puri- 
tan minister  to  come  to  New  York — Francis  Doughty. 
He  had  been  a  vicar  in  Gloucester  and  was  silenced 
for  non-conformity.  In  1637  he  went  to  Taunton, 
Massachusetts.  Persecutions  followed  him  there.  He 
spoke  so  vehemently  for  infant  baptism  that  a  magis- 
trate charged  him  with  being  a  disturber  of  the  peace. 
He  was  dragged  out  of  the  church  and  with  wife  and 
children  was  forced  to  leave  the  town.  With  one  of 
his  elders  he  found  a  refuge  in  Mespat  (near  New- 
town, Long  Island).  After  only  a  year  of  service 
there  in  1643  the  Indian  War  broke  up  the  little  colony 
and  Doughty  found  his  next  refuge  on  Manhattan 
Island.  He  became  the  first  Presbyterian  minister  in 
the  City  of  New  York  where,  supported  by  voluntary 
contributions  of  Puritans  and  Dutch,  he  continued 
his  labors  for  five  years. 

But  troubles  were  after  him  again.  Because  of  the 
failure  of  his  Mespat  Colony  and  his  refusal  to  sur- 
render to  Governor  Stuyvesant  his  slender  holdings 
there  he  encountered  the  wrath  of  that  official  and  was 
glad  to  escape  to  Maryland,  where  for  many  years  he 
preached  to  the  scattered  companies  of  Puritans. 

Richard   Denton.     Another   Presbyterian   pioneer 


24  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

was  Richard  Denton.  He  came  from  England  to  Con- 
necticut in  1630  and  after  laboring  there  removed  to 
Hempstead,  Long  Island,  where  after  fourteen  more 
years  of  service  he  returned  to  England.  He  ministered 
at  times  in  an  English  Puritan  church  in  Manhattan. 
Worship  of  the  Presbyterian  pattern  was  held  in  a 
building  occupied  at  different  hours  jointly  by  the 
Presbyterians  and  the  Dutch.  It  is  not  known  how 
long  his  services  in  the  city  were  continued  but  he  has 
the  honor  of  having  been  the  second  Presbyterian  min- 
ister in  New  York  City. 

From  this  time  there  was  a  steady  increase  in  the 
number  of  Presbyterian  ministers  in  New  York,  so 
that  when  the  New  Amsterdam  Colony  surrendered 
the  city  to  the  Duke  of  York  in  1664  there  were  six 
Puritan  pastors  with  their  churches  within  the  city, 
besides  several  congregations  without  pastors  in  the 
environs. 

Opposition  in  New  York.  The  Revolution  of  1688 
which  brought  toleration  to  Puritans  in  Great  Britain 
had  grave  perils  for  those  in  America.  Worthless 
governors  in  New  York  tried  to  efface  the  growing 
spirit  of  the  liberty-loving  Puritans.  Many  efforts 
were  made  to  establish  the  Church  of  England  in  the 
province.  By  an  Act  of  Assembly  in  1693,  liberty 
was  granted  the  people  in  four  counties  to  choose  their 
pastors.  But  dissenting  ministers  continued  to  have 
a  hard  time,  various  obstacles  being  thrown  by  the 
ruling  powers  in  the  way  of  congregations  desiring 
their  services.  Nevertheless,  steady  progress  was 
made. 

Persecutions  in  Maryland.  Presbyterianism  in 
Maryland  and  Virginia  came  chiefly  from  New  York. 


EARLY  DAYS  25 

Under  the  reign  of  Sir  William  Berkeley  persecu- 
tion began  in  1642.  In  response  to  a  petition  to  New 
England  for  pastors  for  certain  parishes  in  Virginia 
three  ministers  were  sent.  They  were  John  Knowles, 
William  Thompson  and  Thomas  James.  Their  stay 
was  brief.  The  Governor  had  instructions  to  enforce 
the  ceremonies  of  the  English  Church.  The  New 
England  pastors  would  none  of  it,  and  after  a  very 
brief  ministry  they  returned  to  the  more  liberal  climate 
whence  they  had  come. 

Matthew  Hill  was  another  Puritan  pioneer.  He 
began  his  labors  in  1669  in  Charles  County,  Maryland, 
and  in  a  letter  to  Richard  Baxter  he  says : 

"Divine  Providence  hath  cast  my  lot  among  a  loving 
and  willing  people.  That  which,  as  I  hope,  will  make 
my  work  the  more  successful  is  the  people  are  not  at 
all  fond  of  the  liturgy  or  ceremonies." 

Of  Francis  Doughty  and  Matthew  Hill  Dr.  Briggs 
says  : 

"To  these  two  men,  long  forgotten  worthies,  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  Middle  States  is  indebted 
for  its  earliest  planting.  They  were  the  pioneers  and 
martyrs  in  its  ministry,  and  their  sufferings  and  toils 
were  the  seed  of  the  Church." 

Francis  Makemie.  We  come  now  to  the  name  best 
known  among  early  Presbyterian  missionaries — Fran- 
cis Makemie  from  the  Presbytery  of  Laggan  in  Ire- 
land. He  came  to  America  in  1683,  landing  probably 
in  Maryland.  Later  he  made  an  effort  to  settle  in 
South  Carolina,  but  a  storm  at  sea  drove  him  back. 
We  have  no  record  of  his  having  located  anywhere  for 
several  years.  He  seems  to  have  combined  the  busi- 
ness of  a  merchant  with  that  of  a  preacher  and  in 


26  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

that  dual  capacity  to  have  traveled  in  Maryland,  Vir- 
ginia and  the  Barbadoes.  In  1690  we  find  him  on  the 
eastern  shore  of  Virginia.  In  1692  he  made  perma- 
nent settlement  in  the  Barbadoes,  where  for  years  he 
exercised  his  double  calling  of  merchant  and  preacher. 
Eight  years  later  there  is  record  of  his  having  been 
licensed  to  preach  in  his  own  dwelling  house  in  Poco- 
moke,  near  the  Maryland  line.  This  was  to  be  the 
scene  of  his  future  labors.  Two  churches,  one  at 
Snow  Hill  and  one  at  Rehoboth,  were  presently  or- 
ganized. Which  has  the  precedence  is  still  a  matter 
of  dispute.  In  a  short  time  four  other  churches  came 
into  being. 

Missions  to  New  Jersey.  Earlier  than  the  labors 
of  Makemie  and  his  associates  in  Maryland  and  Vir- 
ginia was  the  settlement  of  New  England  Puritans  in 
New  Jersey.  The  first  colony  came  from  Branford, 
Connecticut,  and  took  up  its  abode  in  Newark,  New 
Jersey.  Up  to  1684  there  was  only  one  preacher  in 
that  town.  In  a  letter  published  in  Edinburgh  in  1685 
it  is  written : 

"There  be  people  of  several  sorts  of  religion,  but 
few  very  zealous.  The  people  being  mostly  New  Eng- 
land men,  doe  mostly  incline  their  way,  and  in  every 
town  there  is  a  meeting  house  where  they  worship 
publickly  every  week.  They  have  no  public  law  in 
the  country  for  maintaining  public  teachers,  but  the 
towns  that  have  them  make  way  with  themselves  to 
maintain  them.  We  know  none  that  hath  a  settled 
preacher  that  follows  no  other  imployment,  save  one 
town  Newark." 

Missions  to  Pennsylvania.  In  Pennsylvania  and 
Delaware  the  earliest  ministers  came  from  New  Eng- 


EARLY  DAYS  2.^ 

land.  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather  were  in  close  cor- 
respondence with  Puritans  in  Great  Britain  urging 
suppHes  for  the  colonies,  and  offered  sending  them  to 
the  rude  settlements  in  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware. 

It  was  a  good  sign  for  the  growth  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  America  that  to  the  end  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century  there  was  happy  agreement  and  co- 
operation between  Scotch  and  Irish  Presbyterians  and 
New  England  Puritans.  While  the  dominant  influ- 
ence in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Vir- 
ginia was  Puritan  and  English,  the  Scotch  and  Irish 
were  everywhere  welcomed  and  in  the  middle  colonies 
came  to  a  preponderance. 

American  Presbyterianism.  Presbyterianism  in  all 
the  colonies  thus  grew  up  out  of  diverse  nationalities 
but  in  common  sympathies.  And  it  grew  out  of  com- 
mon necessities.  If  elsewhere  that  system  of  govern- 
ment had  been  imposed  from  without  it  was  the  glory 
of  American  Presbyterianism  that  it  grow  out  of  the 
soil.  They  had  pastors  or  missionaries  first.  Then 
as  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  congregations  became 
apparent  an  elder  or  teacher  united  with  the  minister. 
As  congregations  became  larger  other  elders  were 
added.  Then  as  a  number  of  churches  had  common 
opportunity  and  responsibility  they  felt  the  need  of 
associated  labors  and  so  gradually  by  an  inevitable 
evolution  the  classical  presbytery — and  later,  for  simi- 
lar reasons,  the  synod — came  into  being,  and  still  later 
the  General  Assembly,  thus  completing  the  structure 
of  thoroughly  representative  government. 

This,  in  brief,  is  the  missionary  story  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  We  come  now  to  organized  Presby- 
terianism at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


II 

BEGINNINGS  OF  ORGANIZATION 

THE  early  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  wit- 
nessed the  firm  estabHshing  of  Presbyterian- 
ism  in  the  Middle  Atlantic  States,  but  not 
without  opposition  that  sometimes  amounted  to  perse- 
cution. 

Scotch  Interest  in  the  Colonies.  One  of  the  inter- 
esting features  of  American  Presbyterianism  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  the  hearty 
sympathy  and  close  cooperation  between  Puritan  and 
Scotch  and  Irish  divines.  This  was  most  manifest 
around  Boston  Bay.  It  comes  out  beautifully  in  the 
tone  of  a  letter  from  the  Synod  of  Glasgow  in  1700 
to  Cotton  Mather  in  New  England  in  which,  speaking 
of  their  common  bonds,  he  exhorts  that  "Christian 
communion  be  mutually  maintained  by  ourselves  and 
express  prayer  for  one  another,  by  brotherly  corre- 
spondence and  communicating  acquaintance  by  mutual 
advice,  assistance  and  sympathy,  that  thereby  we  may 
strengthen  one  another's  hands  in  the  work  of  the 
Lord." 

Presbyterianism  has  nowhere  been  of  a  single  strain, 
but  nowhere  is  its  broad  base  of  national  diversities 
and  tolerance  so  well  manifested  as  in  the  American 
colonies.  Here  at  the  very  dawn  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury there  were  Presbyterian  churches  in  Virginia, 
New    York,    New    Jersey,    Pennsylvania,    Delaware, 

28 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ORGANIZATION        29 

Maryland  and  South  Carolina,  and  there  were  Irish 
Presbyterian  ministers  in  Virginia  and  Delaware,  and 
Scotch  in  the  Carolinas,  and  in  New  England  a  num- 
ber settled  in  Congregational  churches. 

It  was  out  of  such  material  that  the  first  presbytery 
was  organized,  predicting  thus  early  a  genuinely  na- 
tional Presbyteriasm  made  up — as  is  the  Republic — 
of  many  nationalities  but  united  in  a  great  common 
cause. 

We  have  alluded  to  the  early  missionary  labors  of 
Makemie.  At  the  opening  of  the  new  century  we  find 
him  planning  larger  things  for  the  Kingdom  in  the 
new  world.  Oppressed  with  the  paucity  of  preachers 
to  meet  religious  conditions  among  the  scattered 
settlers,  he  appealed  by  letter  for  helpers,  and  when 
that  was  ineffective  he  went  to  London  with  his  ap- 
peal. This  stirred  the  ministers  of  London,  who 
agreed  to  support  two  men  for  two  years.  Happy  in 
the  result  of  his  mission,  Makemie  in  1705  returned  to 
America  with  two  fine  recruits — John  Hampton  and 
George  McNish.  In  addition  to  these  three  ministers 
in  Delaware  there  was  one  in  Philadelphia,  Jedediah 
Andrews,  a  Scotch  Presbyterian  by  the  name  of  Stobo 
in  South  Carolina  and  several  Presbyterian  pastors 
in  New  England. 

The  First  Presbytery.  The  need  of  some  Presby- 
terian organization  to  bind  these  widely  separated 
missionaries  to  each  other  began  to  press  upon  them. 
The  occasion  for  realizing  their  hopes  soon  came.  Mr. 
John  Boyd,  a  young  man  of  excellent  parts,  desired 
licensure  that  he  might  preach  to  the  little  church  at 
Freehold,  New  Jersey.  But  how  should  he  get  li- 
censure?     Surely   the    few    ministers    in    Maryland, 


30  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

Delaware  and  Philadelphia  must  grant  it.  This  led 
to  the  organization  of  the  first  presbytery.  The  His- 
torical Society  in  Philadelphia  has  the  original  minutes 
of  the  presbytery,  but  the  first  pages  are  missing. 
They  seem,  however,  to  be  giving  account  of  the  trial 
pieces  for  Mr.  Boyd's  licensure.  It  would  be  inter- 
esting if  we  could  trace  the  origin  of  that  presbytery 
through  those  missing  pages. 

A  letter  from  Mr.  Makemie  seems  to  fix  the  date 
of  the  first  meeting  of  these  ministers  in  the  spring  of 
1706.  Then,  apparently,  trial  pieces  were  assigned  to 
Mr.  Boyd  and  the  meeting  for  licensure  occurred  in 
the  following  December.  So  far  as  known  the  only 
members  to  constitute  that  presbytery  were  Francis 
Makemie,  John  Hampton  and  Jedediah  Andrews. 
Other  members,  apparently  not  present,  were  George 
McNish,  John  Nelson,  Nathaniel  Taylor  and  Samuel 
Davis. 

A  suggestion  of  the  cosmopolitan  type  of  subsequent 
American  Presbyterianism  is  in  the  fact  that  Scotch- 
Irish  and  Puritan  missionaries  from  New  England 
constituted  its  first  body.  The  first  record  that  is 
preserved  shows  the  licensure  of  a  minister  and  the 
second  record  a  call  for  pastoral  services.  Doubtless 
in  each  case  the  churches  concerned  were  weak  and 
struggling  and  in  need  of  every  assistance  the  young 
presbytery  could  render.  Financial  difficulties  are 
certainly  hinted  at  in  the  record.  Thus,  in  the  case 
of  the  call  for  the  pastoral  services  of  the  Rev.  John 
Hampton  at  Snow  Hill,  Maryland,  (in  1707)  it  was 
ordered : 

Snow  Hill.  "Whereas,  Mr.  Hampton,  after  re- 
ceiving the  call  from  the  people  of  Snow  Hill,  gave 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ORGANIZATION        31 

several  satisfactory  reasons  why  he  could  not  at  this 
time  comply  with  it : 

"That  the  said  Mr.  Hampton  may  have  the  call  and 
the  paper  of  subscription  in  his  hands  for  his  further 
perusal  till  the  next  presbytery. 

"It  was  further  ordered  that  a  letter  be  sent  to  the 
people  of  Snow  Hill  to  encourage  their  endeavors  for 
a  settled  minister  among  them  and  that  Mr.  Nathaniel 
Taylor  write  the  letter  expressing  the  mind  of  presby- 
tery." 

From  a  later  minute  we  gather  that  Mr.  Hampton's 
hesitation  in  accepting  the  call  from  Snow  Hill  was 
not  entirely  of  a  spiritual  character.  For  it  was  or- 
dered by  presbytery  that  another  letter  be  sent  to  the 
people  at  Snow  Hill  "requiring  their  faithfulness  and 
care  in  collecting  the  tobacco  promised  by  subscription 
to  Mr.  Hampton."  This  implied  no  reflection  on  the 
personal  habits  of  the  minister.  Tobacco  was  some- 
what of  a  legal  tender  in  those  days, — at  least  so  far  as 
the  minister's  salary  was  concerned. 

How  seriously  these  early  missionaries  conceived 
their  mission  is  evidenced  from  sundry  records  in 
presbyterial  meetings.  Thus,  the  year  after  presby- 
tery was  organized  a  committee  was  appointed  to  "pre- 
pare some  overtures  to  be  considered  by  the  presbytery 
for  propagating  religion  in  their  respective  congrega- 
tions." 

Missionary  Impulse.  The  overtures  are  worthy  of 
record  here  as  showing  not  only  how  definitely  the 
little  Church  in  1707  understood  itself  to  be  a  mission- 
ary body,  but  also  how  it  anticipated  modern  discus- 
sions of  the  social  mission  of  the  Church.  The  over- 
tures read : 


32  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

"i.  That  every  minister  read  and  comment  on  a 
chapter  of  the  Bible  every  Lord's  day. 

"2.  That  it  be  recommended  to  every  minister  of 
the  presbytery  to  set  on  foot  and  encourage  private 
Christian  societies. 

"3.  That  every  minister  of  the  presbytery  supply 
desolate  neighboring  places  where  a  minister  is  want- 
ing and  opportunity  doing  good  offers." 

That  these  overtures  were  as,  sometime  happens 
now,  not  mere  scraps  of  paper  easily  disregarded,  is 
manifest  by  a  "follow-up"  action  taken  the  next  year. 
It  reads  as  follows  : 

"It  is  further  recommended  to  Mr.  Andrews  to 
take  into  his  serious  consideration  of  reading  a  chap- 
ter and  making  a  comment  on  the  same. 

"The  first  overture  is  complied  with  by  the  rest  of 
the  ministers.  The  second  overture  is  in  part  prac- 
tised and  hoped  in  time  to  be  fully  complied  with. 
The  third  overture  complied  with  and  practised  by  the 
ministers." 

Christian  Societies.  What  should  be  the  scope  of 
the  "societies"  alluded  to  we  are  left  to  conjecture, 
but  they  manifestly  refer  to  some  Christian  activities 
other  than  public  worship  on  the  Sabbath,  and  they 
seem  to  have  in  them  the  germ,  at  least,  of  all  the 
modern  development  of  Christian  and  Church  enter- 
prises along  social  lines.  Those  divines  in  the  wilder- 
ness had  good  prevision. 

While  the  presbytery  was  zealous  to  have  the  gospel 
widely  preached,  it  was  far  from  countenancing  the 
overchurching  of  communities.  Thus,  in  1708  the 
people  in  a  certain  church  in  New  Castle  County, 
Maryland,  petitioned  that  another  church  be  organ- 


BEGINNINCxS  OF  ORGANIZATION        33 

ized  near  the  homes  of  certain  members  "for  the 
greater  advantage  and  ease  of  their  several  famihes." 
To  this  request  the  presbytery  made  answer  "that  the 
people  of  New  Castle  and  the  country  vshould  not  be 
divided  by  setting  up  two  separate  meetings." 

From  that  day  to  this  the  expansive  power  of  Pres- 
byterianlsm  has  asserted  itself  and  from  Its  small 
beginnings  In  1707  It  has  progressed  till  to-day  it 
covers  the  world  In  Its  conception  of  the  missionary 
claim. 

First  Home  Mission  Fund.  So  far  as  known  the 
first  action  of  presbytery  suggestive  of  modern  meth- 
ods In  home  mission  finance  was  taken  In  171 3,  when 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Reynolds  offered  to  advance  thirty 
pounds  to  be  disposed  of  by  presbytery  at  its  pleasure 
and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  have  charge  of  this 
Fund  and  to  apply  it  to  such  members  of  the  presby- 
tery as  they  saw  fit.  There  were  no  superannuated 
ministers  in  the  presbytery  at  that  time,  so  it  was  not 
to  be  a  Board  of  Ministerial  Relief.  It  was  to  eke 
out  the  Insufficient  salaries  of  the  pastors  of  the 
weaker  churches.  It  was  the  first  Board  of  Home 
Missions,  nearly  a  century  ahead  of  the  first  mission- 
ary board  organized  by  the  General  Assembly. 

The  beginning  of  the  century  was  remarkable  for 
the  number  and  character  of  the  new  ministerial  re- 
cruits that  were  coming  Into  the  colonies.  On  the  ac- 
cession of  George  I  persecutions  of  Protestants  in  Ire- 
land increased.  This  favored  America.  Notwith- 
standing the  Act  of  Toleration  enacted  In  1719,  the 
troubles,  specially  in  Ireland,  Increased.  Cotton  Ma- 
ther accepted  is  as  a  token  of  divine  favor  to  America. 
He  wrote : 
3 


34  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

"The  glorious  Providence  of  God  in  the  removal  of 
so  many  of  a  desirable  character  hath  doubtless  many 
great  intentions  in  it." 

A  fraction  of  the  Fund  named  above  anticipated  the 
Board  of  Ministerial  Relief,  for  it  is  written  in  1719 
the  committee  for  the  Fund  recommended  that  the 
widow  of  the  Rev.  John  Wilson  be  considered  as  a 
person  worthy  of  the  regard  of  this  synod  and  that 
four  pounds  be  now  given  her  out  of  the  present  Fund 
and  discretionary  power  be  lodged  with  Mr.  Andrews 
(the  treasurer)  to  give  her  some  further  supply  out  of 
the  said  Fund. 

And  those  pioneers  were  orderly  and  businesslike 
in  the  handling  of  that  Fund.  They  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  have  charge  of  it.  They  also  urged  "all  their 
members  to  use  their  diligence  that  the  yearly  collec- 
tion for  the  Fund  may  be  duly  minded,  that  the  said 
collection  may  not  drop  as  there  seems  danger  that 
they  may  in  case  better  care  be  not  taken  than  has  been 
for  some  years  past." 

The  rapid  growth  of  the  Church  seemed  now  as- 
sured. New  settlements  were  opening  in  many  direc- 
tions. Only  one  agency  anywhere  interfered  with  its 
progress,  and  that  chiefly  in  Virginia  and  New  York. 
It  was  the  activity  of  the  Church  of  England  and  its 
purpose  that  episcopacy  should  be  firmly  established 
in  the  New  World,  even  though  at  the  expense  of 
other  communions.  At  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century  it  seemed  as  if  Presbyterianism  would  be 
dominant  in  New  York.  A  singular  incident  checked 
this  expectation.  A  Presbyterian  minister  by  the  name 
of  Vesey  became  the  minister  of  the  Puritan  colony 
in  that  city.    After  a  ministry  of  only  two  years  a 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ORGANIZATION        35 

new  ambition  seized  the  Puritan  divine  who  hurried 
to  London  and  was  ordained  by  the  Lord  Bishop  of 
London.  Returning,  he  became  the  first  rector  of  the 
Episcopal  Church.  Of  him  James  Anderson,  a  Puri- 
tan minister,  writes : 

"He  has  done  and  is  still  doing  what  he  can  to  ruin 
the  dissenting  interest  in  the  place." 

Lord  Cornbury.  Whatever  may  have  been  Vesey's 
motives  in  deserting  his  old  comrades,  and  then  oppos- 
ing them,  there  is  no  question  that  his  change  had  a 
mighty  effect  in  giving  episcopacy  a  preeminence 
which  it  long  maintained.  Vesey  had  strong  confed- 
erates in  the  civil  powers.  Every  endeavor  to  advance 
Puritanism  in  and  about  the  city  was  met  with  opposi- 
tion. When  Lord  Cornbury  became  governor — the 
man  of  whom  Bancroft  says  "he  joined  the  worst 
form  of  arrogance  to  intellectual  imbecility" — matters 
went  from  bad  to  worse,  the  persecution  of  Puritans 
culminating  in  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  Make- 
mie  for  daring  to  preach  the  gospel  on  Manhattan 
Island  without  Cornbury's  permission.  After  a  pro- 
longed trial  he  was  acquitted  but  was  obliged  to  pay 
the  costs  of  the  prosecution  as  well  as  the  defense, 
amounting  to  the  large  sum  of  more  than  eighty-three 
pounds. 

Nothwithstanding  the  hindrances  to  the  growth  of 
Puritanism,  thus  illustrated,  the  first  presbytery  grew 
steadily  in  numbers  and  influence.  However,  for 
many  years  it  was  a  missionary  presbytery  and  de- 
pendent in  large  measure  on  aid  from  Great  Britain. 
The  extent  to  which  the  infant  Church  was  at  that 
time  dependent  on  the  bounty  of  British  churches  it 


36  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

were  well,  in  these  days  of  closer  fellowship  between 
Great  Britain  and  America,  fully  to  acknowledge. 

Help  from  Abroad.  In  the  feeble  condition  of  the 
early  colonies  nothing  was  more  natural  than  that  they 
should  appeal  for  help  to  the  mother  churches  in  Eng- 
land and  Scotland.  The  first  of  many  such  appeals  ap- 
pears to  have  been  made  in  1709  in  a  letter  to  Sir 
Edmund  Harrison,  too  lengthy  to  be  quoted  here  in 
full.  The  point  of  it,  however,  appears  in  these  sen- 
tences : 

"Unto  whom  can  we  apply  ourselves  more  fitly  than 
unto  our  fathers  who  have  been  extolled  in  the  Re- 
formed Churches  for  their  large  bounty  and  benevo- 
lence in  their  necessities.  We  doubt  not  but  that  if 
about  the  sum  of  two  hundred  pounds  per  annum  were 
raised  for  the  encouragement  of  ministers  in  those 
parts  it  would  enable  ministers  and  people  to  erect 
eight  congregations  and  ourselves  put  in  better  circum- 
stances than  hitherto  we  have  been." 

The  next  year  similar  letters  were  sent  to  Glasgow 
and  Dublin.  The  letter  to  Dublin,  after  giving  an  ac- 
count of  the  state  of  the  churches  in  the  colonies,  con- 
tinues : 

"That  then,  reverend  and  dear  brethren,  which  at 
present  we  would  humbly  for  the  sake  of  Christ's  in- 
terests make  the  subject  of  our  address  unto  you,  is 
that  of  your  zealous  Christian  and  religious  charity 
to  the  mystical  body  of  the  blessed  Jesus,  you  would 
raise  one  sixty  pound  to  support  an  able,  well  ap- 
proved young  man  from  yourselves  as  an  itinerant  in 
these  parts  among  the  dispersed  children  of  God  for  a 
year,  after  which  time  we  doubt  not  but  that  he  may 
be  settled  comfortably." 


BEGINNINGS  OF  ORGANIZATION        37 

The  letter  to  Glasgow  is  more  extended  and  re- 
counts the  organization  of  the  presbytery  (then  num- 
bering ten  ministers)  "whose  endeavors  and  poor  es- 
says have  not  been  altogether  in  vain." 

After  speaking  of  the  "desolate  condition  of  sundry 
vacant  places  which  cannot  provide  maintenance  for 
ministers"  and  after  begging  that  one  or  more  min- 
isters be  sent  over  from  Scotland  the  letter  continues 
thus : 

"We  further  represent  that,  according  to  the  best 
of  our  judgment,  forty  pounds  sterling  annually  be 
paid  in  Scotland  to  be  transmitted  in  goods  will  be  a 
competency  for  the  support  of  each  minister  you  send, 
provided  that  of  your  pious  and  Christian  benevolence 
you  suitably  fit  them  out.  And  after  they  have  labored 
in  the  Lord's  vineyard  a  year  or  two  we  are  in  good 
hope  that  they  will  find  such  comfortable  encourage- 
ment as  may  induce  them  to  settle  among  us  without 
giving  you  further  trouble  for  their  support." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  presbytery  also  ap- 
pealed to  the  Presbytery  of  Dublin  urging  their  plea 
on  the  ground  of  the  impossibility  of  securing  minis- 
ters for  the  rapidly  enlarging  field.    They  say : 

"In  all  Virginia  there  is  but  one  small  congregation, 
at  Elizabeth  River,  and  some  few  families  favoring 
our  way  in  Rappahannock  and  York.  In  Maryland 
only  four,  in  Pennsylvania  five,  and  in  the  Jerseys 
two,  which  bounds  with  some  places  in  New  York, 
make  up  all  the  bounds  we  have  any  members  from, 
and  at  present  some  of  these  be  vacant." 

From  Dublin,  London  and  Glasgow  substantial  help 
came  in  answer  to  these  appeals.  Within  a  short  time 
eight  ministers  were  sent  to  reinforce  the  thin  mis- 


,38  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

sionary  line  in  the  new  world  and  considerable  contri- 
butions of  money  for  their  support. 

Presbyterial  Authority.  The  presbytery  in  those 
days  exercised  authority  greater  than  that  exercised 
by  any  Board  of  Home  Missions  in  matters  of  vacancy 
and  supply.    Thus  in  171 1  we  come  on  this  record: 

"Mr.  McNish's  case  came  under  consideration  and 
it  was  determiend  to  leave  his  affair  respecting  Ja- 
maica and  Patuxunt  to  himself,  with  advice  not  to 
delay  in  fixing  himself  somewhere." 

Every  effort  was  made  by  the  presbytery  to  supply 
the  destitute  regions  with  gospel  privileges  but,  true 
to  their  inherited  principles  they  refused,  under  any 
urgency,  to  lower  the  standards  of  ministerial  qualifi- 
cations. 


Ill 


THE    FIRST    SYNOD    AND    GENERAL 
ASSEMBLY 

ALTHOUGH  made  up  of  many  different  types 
to  which  we  have  referred  the  first  presbytery 
maintained  its  unity  of  doctrine  and  poHty 
until  by  sheer  force  of  its  size  it  divided  into  presby- 
teries and  united  in  the  first  American  Synod.  Dr. 
Briggs  says : 

"The  Presbyterians  of  the  original  presbytery  were 
all  of  the  broad,  generous,  tolerant  type,  such  as  we 
might  expect  from  a  happy  union  of  English,  Scotch, 
Irish  and  Welsh  Presbyterianism." 

The  First  Synod.  We  come  now  to  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  first  synod.  Three  presbyteries  united  in 
it  in  171 7.  By  reason  of  persecutions  in  the  Old 
World,  immigration  to  the  colonies  continued  to  in- 
crease. It  strengthened  the  Presbyterian  cause.  The 
accessions  from  Ireland  were  specially  valuable.  So 
the  synod  began  with  thirteen  ministers  and  six  elders. 
What  is  of  special  interest  to  us  is  the  subject  that 
first  engaged  their  attention.  They  were  first  of  all 
a  missionary  synod.  The  theme  that  dominated  the 
meeting  was  not  theology  nor  ecclesiasticism,  but  mis- 
sions. This  was  the  burning  question  of  the  hour, — 
How  may  we  meet  the  missionary  opportunities  open- 
ing in  every  direction  ? 

39 


40  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

Fund  for  Pious  Uses.  First  of  all,  therefore,  as 
we  have  said,  it  established  a  "Fund  for  Pious  Uses," 
a  quaint  designation  of  a  home  mission  treasury. 
Jedediah  Andrews  was  chosen  treasurer  of  this  Fund, 
which  amounted  to  eighteen  pounds,  one  shilling  and 
sixpence.  In  due  time  Mr.  Andrews  gave  bond  for 
the  faithful  performance  of  his  duties  and  so  home 
missions  entered  on  an  organizezd  existence. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  the  contributions  of  the 
Scotch  churches  came  not  wholly  in  cash  but  in  goods, 
which  had  free  freightage  and  were  sold  in  New  York 
and  the  proceeds  given  to  the  Fund. 

Rev.  James  Anderson.  The  Rev.  James  Anderson 
was  the  first  man  to  receive  the  benefit  of  this  Scotch 
offering.  He  had  preached  for  a  month  to  a  handful 
of  people  in  New  York  City.  A  little  later  the  church 
was  permitted  to  hold  service  in  the  City  Hall  on  con- 
dition that  they  would  not  "obstruct  the  public  Courts 
of  Justice  to  be  held  from  time  to  time  in  the  said  City 
Hall."  In  a  short  time  there  was  some  danger  of  such 
obstruction,  for  the  church  separated  into  two  hostile 
factions.  Mr.  Andrews'  preaching  was  not  satisfac- 
tory. Other  causes  of  alienations  arose,  so  that  in 
1722  the  church  split  and  a  separate  congregation  was 
organized  which  called  Jonathan  Edwards  as  the  min- 
ister. 

The  original  congregation  made  urgent  appeal  to 
Scotland  for  further  help,  which  resulted  in  a  collec- 
tion of  four  hundred  and  one  pounds  to  enable  the 
Presbyterians  of  New  York  to  have  a  church  building. 
Various  difficulties  arose  in  connection  with  the  build- 
ing enterprise.  The  controversy  over  the  minister 
raged.    Finally,  Mr.  Anderson,  the  storm  center,  was 


SYNOD  AND  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY      41 

forced  to  retire.  The  Rev.  Ebenezer  Pemberton  took 
his  place,  the  wound  between  the  two  congregations 
was  partially  healed  and  Presbyterianism  in  the  me- 
tropolis began  to  prosper. 

Home  Mission  Committee.  In  1718  we  have  the 
first  record  of  what  later  grew  into  a  Committee  of 
Home  Missions.  It  appears  in  an  overture  before 
presbytery  as  follows : 

"Overtured,  whether  a  sum  out  of  the  Fund  not  ex- 
ceeding three  pounds  be  referred  to  three  persons 
nominated  by  the  synod,  to  be  disposed  of  according  to 
their  discretion,  suitable  to  the  design  of  the  Fund, 
and  that  this  be  no  precedent  for  the  future." 

They  were  careful  to  leave  a  door  open  for  retreat 
from  having  given  too  much  authority  to  a  Commit- 
tee! 

Appeals  to  Great  Britain.  The  appeals  to  churches 
of  Great  Britain  for  ministers  and  for  help  for  their 
support,  so  often  made  by  the  first  presbytery,  were 
continued  by  the  synod.  From  171 5  on  there  was  a 
steady  accession  to  the  ministerial  forces  by  immi- 
gration from  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland. 

First  Church  of  New  York.  In  the  years  following 
1 718  the  synod  w^as  as  diligent  in  developing  the  re- 
sources of  the  struggling  churches  as  it  was  persistent 
in  its  appeals  for  foreign  aid.  The  firm  establishing  of 
the  *'Pious  Fund"  had  constant  attention.  A  commit- 
tee to  have  special  care  of  this  Fund  and  to  "consider 
proper  methods  of  disposing  of  it"  was  appointed  in 
1719.  One  of  the  first  decisions  was  to  give  help  to  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  of  New  York  stated  in 
these  words : 


42  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

"It  was  overtured  to  the  synod  by  the  committee 
appointed  to  consider  the  Fund  that  a  tenth  part  of  the 
neat  produce  of  the  Glasgow  collection  be  given  to  the 
Presbyterian  congregation  of  New  York  toward  the 
support  of  the  gospel  among  them  and  that  a  letter  be 
sent  to  them  from  the  synod  relating  to  their  circum- 
stances." 

Yearly  Collections.  The  same  year  the  synod  or- 
dered "that  a  yearly  collection  be  gathered  in  every 
particular  congregation  for  pious  uses  to  be  sent 
yearly  to  the  synod  by  their  minister  or  elder." 

This  exhortation  was  accompanied  by  a  strong  ap- 
peal reciting  that  it  seemed  "unreasonable  and  unjus- 
tifiable to  apply  to  other  places  in  this  affair  and  our- 
selves who  are  more  immediately  concerned  to  hold 
our  hands"  and  then  urging  that  a  yearly  collection  be 
taken  in  every  congregation  "for  the  carrying  on  of 
the  noble  and  pious  design  of  planting  and  spreading 
the  everlasting  gospel  in  these  provinces." 

In  the  repeated  action  taken  to  impress  the  duty  of 
missionary  gifts  in  regular  and  systematic  ways,  we 
have  the  foundation  of  the  later  financial  plans  for 
doing  the  home  mission  work. 

First  Executive  Commission.  The  first  mention 
of  an  Executive  Commission  relates  specially  to  the 
administration  of  this  Fund.  Thus,  in  1720  it  was  or- 
dered, 

"That  a  commission  of  the  synod  be  appointed  to  act 
in  the  name  and  with  the  whole  authority  of  the  synod 
in  all  affairs  that  shall  come  before  them  and  particu- 
larly that  the  whole  of  the  Fund  be  left  to  their  con- 
duct and  that  they  be  accountable  to  the  synod." 


SYNOD  AND  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY      43 

The  following  years  were  notable  for  the  great 
numbers  of  revivals  of  religion,  led  on  by  such  men 
as  the  Tennents,  father  and  sons,  and  a  little  later  by 
Whitfield  in  his  memorable  evangelistic  tours  in  the 
Carolinas,  Georgia  and  north  as  far  as  Boston.  The 
next  few  decades  were  remarkable  for  the  results  of 
these  revivals  and,  strange  to  tell,  for  the  controversies 
which  grew  out  of  them,  but  their  story  does  not  prop- 
erly belong  to  a  history  of  missions. 

Division  of  Synod.  Missions  were  checked  rather 
than  advanced  by  the  ecclesiastical  debates  which  cul- 
minated in  1741  in  the  division  of  the  synod.  There 
were  now  two  bodies  at  variance  along  lines  which 
came  to  be  known  as  Old  School  and  New  School,  rep- 
resented respectively  by  the  Synods  of  Philadelphia 
and  New  York. 

Rapid  Progress.  We  pass  by  this  period  of  strife 
extending  to  1758,  when  the  two  bodies  were  happily 
united.  Thence  dates  a  long  period  of  progress  in  all 
directions  and  the  missionary  story  becomes  again 
interesting  and  full  of  promise.  The  latter  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  was  remarkable  for  pioneering  and 
so  for  missionary  opportunities.  The  Alleghenies 
were  crossed,  the  territories  south  of  the  Ohio  were 
settled  by  hardy  and  adventurous  people — "fighters  for 
their  own  land": — owing,  as  Roosevelt  continues,  "most 
of  the  victories  only  to  themselves."  They  were  be- 
yond the  pale  of  civil  government.  Their  strong  right 
arms  were  their  defense  against  French  and  Indians 
and  their  stout  hearts  and  clear  Scotch-Irish  heads 
opened  the  way  for  a  Christian  civilization. 

•  Scotch-Irish.     Missionaries  went  from  Pennsylva- 
nia and  Virginia  into  the  Carolinas,  with  such  blessing 


44  THE  SOUI.  OF  AMERICA 

on  their  missionary  labors  that  in  1770  the  Presbytery 
of  Orange,  comprising  the  States  of  North  and  South 
CaroHna  and  part  of  Tennessee,  was  organized.  This 
westward  migration  ahke  from  the  CaroHnas  and 
from  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  was  largely  by 
Scotch-Irish  people.  Of  them  Theodore  Roosevelt 
writes : 

"The  backwoodsmen  were  Americans  by  birth  and 
parentage  and  of  mixed  race ;  but  the  dominant  strain 
in  their  blood  was  that  of  the  Presbyterian  Irish — the 
Scotch-Irish  as  they  were  often  called.  Full  credit 
has  been  awarded  the  Roundhead  and  the  Cavalier  for 
their  leadership  in  our  history;  nor  have  we  been 
altogether  blind  to  the  deeds  of  the  Hollander  and 
the  Huguenot;  but  it  is  doubtful  if  we  have  wholly 
realized  the  importance  of  the  part  played  by  that 
stern  and  virile  people,  the  Irish  whose  preachers 
taught  the  creed  of  Knox  and  Calvin.  These  Irish 
representatives  of  the  Covenanters  were  in  the  west 
almost  what  the  Puritans  were  in  the  northeast,  and 
more  than  the  Cavaliers  were  in  the  south.  Mingled 
with  the  descendants  of  many  other  races,  they  never- 
theless formed  the  kernel  of  the  distinctively  and  in- 
tensely American  stock  who  were  the  pioneers  of  our 
people  in  their  march  westward,  the  vanguard  of  the 
army  of  fighting  settlers  who  with  axe  and  rifle  won 
their  way  from  the  AUeghenies  to  the  Rio  Grande  and 
the  Pacific." 

It  was  by  the  intrepid  courage  of  these  Covenanters 
that  the  Southwest  was  rescued  from  barbarism. 
Having  won  the  land  with  their  strong  hands,  their 
clear  heads  established  their  own  government  and  set 
in  the  wilderness  the  first  example  of  stable  civil 
institutions  unhampered  by  foreign  dictation. 


SYNOD  AND  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY      45 

North  of  the  Ohio  River,  before  the  ordinance  of 
1789,  the  western  settlements  were  retarded  by  the 
hostihty  of  the  Indians,  but  the  first  pilgrimages  into 
the  forests  of  Ohio  and  Indiana  were  undertaken  by 
missionaries  who  dared  the  privations  and  perils  of 
the  wilderness  that  they  might  give  the  gospel  some 
entrance  to  cabins  of  brave  settlers  and  tepees  of  the 
Indians.  In  these  intrepid  enterprises  the  names  of 
Charles  Beatty  and  George  Duffield  deserve  recogni- 
tion. In  1766  they  daringly  pushed  into  the  wilderness 
and  preached  the  gospel  to  Indians  and  to  scattered 
settlers  on  the  Muskingum  and  in  the  Miami  Valleys, 
more  than  a  hundred  miles  beyond  any  settled  fron- 
tier. 

Indian  Missions.  In  1768  the  Synod,  "taking  into 
consideration  the  deplorable  condition  of  the  Indian 
tribes,  the  natives  of  the  land  who  sit  in  heathenish 
darkness  and  are  perishing  for  lack  of  knowledge," 
appointed  a  committee  to  prepare  a  plan  of  missions 
among  them.  Missionary  collections  were  ordered  in 
all  the  churches,  not  only  to  secure  laborers  among  the 
Indians,  but  also  "to  relieve  the  unhappy  lot  of  many 
in  various  parts  of  our  land  who  are  brought  up  in 
ignorance,  who  on  account  of  their  poverty  and  scat- 
tered habitations  are  unable  without  some  assistance 
to  support  the  gospel  ministry  among  them."  Thus,  a 
generation  before  any  organized  home  mission  work 
was  undertaken  the  missionary  spirit  breathed  in  the 
councils  of  the  Church  and  took  shape  in  far-reaching 
missionary  plans. 

Theological  Education.  The  difficulties  of  realiz- 
ing their  plans  were,  however,  increased  by  frequent 
hostilities  of  the  Indians,  furthered  by  intrigues  on 


46  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

the  part  of  the  French  and,  finally,  by  the  approach  of 
the  War  of  the  Revolution.  But  even  in  those  trou- 
blous times  many  steps  were  taken  looking  to  the  in- 
auguration of  those  wise  policies  which  the  new  cen- 
tury was  to  witness.  Thus,  in  1768,  the  germs  of 
theological  education,  so  much  needed  in  the  colonies 
which  could  no  longer  import  ministers  from  abroad, 
made  their  appearance.  John  Witherspoon,  one  of  the 
most  famous  names  in  Presbyterian  history,  was  in- 
augurated president  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey. 
He  was  appointed  professor  of  divinity  as  well  as 
president  of  the  college,  and  also  instructed  in  Hebrew 
the  young  men  who  were  looking  forward  to  the  min- 
istry. A  few  years  later  (1771)  the  synod  proposed 
a  scheme  "for  supporting  young  men  of  piety  and 
parts  at  learning  for  the  work  of  the  ministry  so  that 
our  numerous  vacancies  may  be  supplied  with  preach- 
ers of  the  gospel."  This  was  the  germ  of  the  Board 
of  Education. 

Religious  Literature,  About  the  same  time  the 
missionary  work  along  the  frontiers  had  made  evident 
the  need  of  religious  literature.  Collections  were 
asked  for  that  purpose.  Committees  were  appointed 
in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  to  receive  and  dis- 
burse the  Fund  and  each  was  authorized  to  draw  on 
the  treasurer  for  a  sum  not  to  exceed  twenty  pounds. 
This  was  the  germ  of  the  Board  of  Publication. 

Dawn  o£  Foreign  Missions.  In  1724  Ezra  Stiles 
and  Samuel  Hopkins  proposed  to  the  Synod  the  send- 
ing of  two  men  to  Africa  to  do  foreign  missionary 
work  on  the  dark  continent.  The  Synod  approved 
the  plan  and  appealed  to  the  society  in  Scotland  to 
give  help  to  this  enterprise  of  faith.    But  the  War  of 


SYNOD  AND  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY   47 

^'j6  soon  broke  out  and  absorbed  the  whole  attention 
of  the  Church,  so  that  the  plan  could  not  be  carried 
out ;  but  the  project  showed  how  seriously  foreign  mis- 
sions was  already  pressing  on  the  heart  of  the  Church. 
This  was  the  germ  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 

The  War  for  Independence  was  now  on  and  a  brief 
notice  of  the  position  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
that  great  struggle  is  a  proper  part  of  the  home  mis- 
sion story.  How  did  the  missionary  pioneers  stand  at 
the  time  ? 

Declaration  of  Independence.  Before  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  the  Scotch-Irish  met  in  council 
in  Abingdon,  Virginia,  and  addressed  the  Virginia 
delegates  in  these  memorable  words: 

**We  explored  our  uncultivated  wilderness,  border- 
ing on  many  nations  of  savages,  and  surrounded  by 
mountains  almost  inaccessible  to  any  but  these  sav- 
ages; but  even  to  these  remote  regions  the  hand 
of  power  hath  pursued  us,  to  strip  us  of  that  liberty 
and  property  with  which  God,  nature  and  the  rights  of 
humanity  have  vested  us.  We  are  willing  to  con- 
tribute all  in  our  power,  if  applied  to  constitutionally, 
but  cannot  think  of  submitting  our  liberty  or  property 
to  a  venal  British  Parliament  or  a  corrupt  ministry. 
We  are  deliberately  and  resolutely  determined  never 
to  surrender  any  of  our  inestimable  privileges  to  any 
power  upon  earth  but  at  the  expense  of  our  lives. 
These  are  our  real  though  unpolished  sentiments  of 
liberty  and  loyalty  and  in  them  we  are  resolved  to  live 
and  die." 

This  was  in  January,  1775.  In  May  of  the  same 
year  the  Scotch-Irish  of  Mecklenburg  County,  North 
Carolina,  took  still  stronger  ground  in  the  famous 


48  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

Mecklenburg  Declaration.  It  reads  like  an  advance 
copy  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  as  its  closing 
words  plainly  show: 

"Resolved,  That  we  do  hereby  declare  ourselves  a  free 
and  independent  people ;  are,  and  of  a  right  ought  to 
be,  a  sovereign  and  self-governing  association,  under 
the  control  of  no  power  other  than  that  of  our  God 
and  the  general  government  of  the  Congress;  to  the 
maintenance  of  which  we  solemnly  pledge  to  each 
other  our  mutual  cooperation  and  our  lives,  our  for- 
tunes and  our  most  sacred  honor." 

Of  this  deliverance  Bancroft  says: 

Presbyterian  Patriots.  "The  first  voice  publicly 
raised  in  America  to  dissolve  all  connection  with  Great 
Britain  came  not  from  the  Puritans  of  New  England 
nor  the  Dutch  of  New  York  nor  the  planters  of  Vir- 
ginia, but  from  the  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians." 

The  patriotism  of  Presbyterians  throughout  the 
War  for  Independence  has  been  frequently  acknowl- 
edged. Some  of  the  most  remarkable  illustrations  of 
it  were  to  be  found  among  the  pioneers  of  the  West 
and  Southwest,  the  fruits  of  missionary  labors.  Both 
General  Pickens,  who  planned  the  Battle  of  Cowpens, 
and  General  Morgan,  the  commander,  were  Presby- 
terian elders.  At  Kings  Mountain  the  body  of  the 
troops  was  Presbyterian  and  they  were  led  almost  en- 
tirely by  Presbyterian  elders. 

Referring  to  those  Presbyterians  of  the  valleys  and 
mountains  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  Washing- 
ton declared  that  if  all  his  plans  became  overturned 
and  but  a  single  standard  was  left  he  would  plant  it 
upon  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  making  that  his  Ther- 
mopylae would  rally  around  him  the  patriots  of  the 


SYNOD  AND  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY   49 

valley  and  there  lay  the  foundations  of  a  new  re- 
public. 

With  such  attitude  among  Presbyterians  and  such 
leadership  it  is  not  strange,  that  when  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  met  in  Philadelphia  to  frame  our 
national  government,  the  government  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  influenced  the  government  of  the  state, 
: — not  strange  that  the  two  in  so  many  respects  are  as- 
similated. 

General  Assembly.  A  time  of  war  is  fatal  to  mis- 
sionary progress.  It  was,  therefore,  to  be  expected 
that  the  years  of  the  Revolution  would  feel  the  in- 
terruption. Many  church  buildings  had  been  de- 
stroyed; many  ministers  driven  away;  many  congre- 
gations scattered.  But  the  recovery  was  rapid. 
Again  the  missionaries  took  up  their  march  through 
the  forests  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  and  far 
down  to  the  pine  groves  of  the  Carolinas  and  the 
everglades  of  the  Gulf.  And  organization  followed 
close  on  heroic  adventure.  A  bond  of  union  between 
widely  scattered  workers  and  synods  was  called 
for.  The  sixteen  presbyteries  were  grouped  In  four 
synods  and  these  were  united  In  a  General  Assembly 
which  met  in  Philadelphia  in  1789. 

The  first  care  of  the  now  thoroughly  organized 
Church  was  the  subject  of  missions.  The  very  first 
action  of  the  new  Assembly  was  "That  the  state  of 
the  frontier  settlements  should  be  taken  into  consid- 
eration and  missionaries  should  be  sent  to  them  and 
that  an  annual  collection  should  be  taken  in  all  the 
churches  to  defray  the  necessary  expenses  of  the  mis- 
sionaries." 

The  next  Assembly  ordered  a  committee  "to  prepare 
4 


50  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

certain  directions  necessary  for  the  missionaries  of 
the  Assembly  in  fulfilHng  the  design  of  their  mission 
and  to  specify  the  compensation  that  it  would  be 
proper  to  make  for  their  services." 

That  same  year  two  missionaries,  Nathan  Herr  and 
Joseph  Hart,  were  appointed  to  central  New  York. 
They  spent  three  months  among  the  Oneidas  and 
Cayugas  and  scattered  gospel  seed  in  the  now  fertile 
and  productive  Presbyterian  gardens  of  Wilkes-Barre, 
Pittston  and  Scranton,  Pennsylvania. 

Cooperation.  It  is  pleasant  to  record  that  at  a  time 
when  there  seemed  as  yet  little  danger  of  denomina- 
tional rivalry,  the  Assembly  of  1794  laid  stress  on  co- 
operative relations  with  other  communions.  It  is  in 
these  words: 

"As  our  aim  has  not  been  to  proselyte  from  other 
communions  to  our  own  denomination  we  have 
charged  our  missionaries  to  avoid  all  doubtful  disputa- 
tions, to  abstain  from  unfriendly  censures  or  reflec- 
tions on  other  religious  persuasions  and  adhering 
strictly  to  the  great  doctrines  of  our  holy  religion 
which  influence  the  heart  and  life  of  godliness  to  fol- 
low after  the  things  that  make  for  peace  and  general 
edification." 

An  illustration  of  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  which 
ruled  in  those  early  days  is  the  close  relations  estab- 
lished and  long  maintained  between  the  General  As- 
sembly and  the  General  Association  of  Connecticut. 
Thus,  in  1799,  the  Rev.  Methuselah  Baldwin  was  di- 
rected to  spend  three  months  or  more  in  the  vicinity 
of  Onondaga,  "in  connection  with  Mr.  Williston,  a 
missionary  from  the  General  Association  of  Connecti- 
cut." 


SYNOD  AND  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY      51 

Plan  of  Union.  In  1801  the  "Plan  of  Union"  was 
adopted  "to  promote  a  spirit  of  accommodation  between 
those  inhabitants  of  the  new  settlements  who  hold  the 
Presbyterian  and  those  who  hold  the  Congregational 
form  of  Church  Government."  Briefly,  this  Plan  pro- 
vided that  the  Congregational  churches  might  settle 
Presbyterian  ministers  and  the  reverse,  and  that  if  a 
congregation  consists  partly  of  Congregationalists  and 
partly  of  Presbyterians  this  fact  should  be  no  obstacle 
to  their  uniting  in  one  church  and  settling  a  minister  ac- 
cording to  their  choice.  This  Plan  continued  in  peace- 
ful operation  for  more  than  a  generation,  a  happy  ar- 
rangement for  advancing  the  gospel  in  the  new  parts 
of  the  country. 

Now,  after  more  than  a  century,  we  are  just  begin- 
ning by  church  federation  to  get  back  to  the  essential 
elements  of  the  "Plan  of  Union." 

Better  Organization.  Though  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury at  its  close  witnessed  a  marked  decline  in  many 
places  in  vital  godhness  and  an  increase  of  infidelity 
and  immorality,  it  also  witnessed  a  marked  increase  of 
the  missionary  spirit,  specially  in  the  matter  of  or- 
ganization. Among  the  objects  named  for  special  con- 
sideration in  the  Assembly  of  1800  were  the  "gospeliz- 
ing  of  the  Indians  on  the  frontiers  of  our  country,  the 
instruction  of  Negroes,  the  poor  and  those  who  are 
destitute  of  the  means  of  grace  in  various  parts  of 
this  extensive  country."  The  same  Assembly  pro- 
vided for  a  permanent  fund  for  missionary  work. 

Here  again  are  the  germs  of  a  comprehensive  pro- 
gram for  church  development  which  swiftly  came 
into  action.  So  we  begin  the  missionary  story  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 


IV 
OVER  THE  ALLEGHENIES 

THE  first  record  of  organized  work  which  may 
be  regarded  as  the  germ  of  the  present  Board 
of  Home  Missions  is  in  the  "Minutes  of  the 
Standing  Committee  of  Missions,"  May,  1802.  The 
resolution  constituting  that  Committee  is  as  follows: 

Standing  Committee  of  Missions.  ''Resolved, 
That  a  Committee  be  chosen  annually  by  the  General 
Assembly  to  be  denominated  The  Standing  Committee 

of  Missions That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  this 

Committee  to  collect  during  the  recess  of  the  Assembly 
all  the  information  in  their  power  relative  to  the  con- 
cerns of  missions  and  missionaries,  to  digest  this  in- 
formation and  to  report  thereon  at  each  meeting  of  the 
Assembly,  to  designate  the  places  where  and  specify 
the  periods  during  which  the  missionaries  should  be 
employed,  to  correspond  with  them  if  necessary  and 
with  all  other  persons  on  missionary  business,  to  nomi- 
nate missionaries  to  the  Assembly  and  report  the  num- 
ber which  the  funds  will  permit  to  be  employed,  to 
hear  the  reports  of  missionaries  and  make  a  statement 
thereon  to  the  Assembly  relative  to  the  diligence,  fidel- 
ity and  success  of  the  missionaries." 

Their  Names.  The  Committee  thus  constituted 
should  be  held  in  perpetual  remembrance.  They  were : 
Rev.Dr.Ashbel  Green,  Rev.  Messrs.  Philip  Milledoler, 

52 


OVER  THE  ALLEGHENIES  53 

John  B.  Linn,  Jacob  J.  Janeway  and  Messrs.  Elias 
Boudinot,  Robert  Smith  and  Ebenezer  Hazard. 

In  the  pahniest  days  of  home  missions  there  has  not 
been  an  ampler  charter  for  the  conduct  of  the  work. 
The  funds,  the  men,  the  fields — all  were  in  the  hands 
of  this  Committee.  How  they  honored  their  appoint- 
ment will  appear  as  the  work  developed  under  their 
hands.  To  be  sure  it  was  the  day  of  small  things.  But 
the  plan  was  all  there.  It  only  waited  the  coming  gen- 
erations to  erect  the  great  building. 

Religious  Literature.  The  vision  and  activity  of 
the  Committee  appear  in  its  next  meeting.  It  was 
January,  1803.  They  did  two  important  things.  First, 
with  full  recognition  of  the  fact  that  in  Presbyterian 
polity  intelligence  and  religion  go  together,  they  de- 
vised a  plan  for  the  wise  distribution  of  books  among 
the  different  presbyteries.  This  was  long  before  the 
thought  of  any  Board  of  Publication.  But  it  carried 
namely :  what  was  the  condition  of  the  frontiers  from 
a  missionary  point  of  view,  what  missionaries  were 
the  germs  of  that  Board.  Second,  the  chairman  and 
secretary  were  directed  to  correspond  on  the  subject 
of  missions  "with  any  Missionary  Society  in  this  coun- 
try and  abroad." 

There  were  not  many  Missionary  Societies  at  that 
time  to  correspond  with,  certainly  very  few  in  the 
Colonies,  but  this  was  a  vision  ahead  which  after  gen- 
erations have  made  significant. 

The  Committee's  Plans.  At  the  next  meeting  a 
further  step  toward  the  orderly  conduct  of  the  busi- 
ness was  taken  in  certain  instructions  to  presbyteries. 
Three  questions  were  addressed  to  the  presbyteries. 


54  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

needed  among  Indian  tribes  and  what  kind  of  mission- 
aries did  the  occasion  call  for. 

The  Committee  was  specially  solicitous  regarding 
the  character  of  missionaries  employed.  They  wanted 
no  men  of  inferior  qualifications, — they  thought  the 
frontiers  demanded  the  very  finest  type.  Those  who 
were  to  make  first  impressions  should  be  calculated  to 
make  them  favorably.  "To  do  this  work"  the  Com- 
mittee says,  "men  of  the  most  distinguished  piety  and 
ability  ought  to  be  sent.  They  will  be  most  likely  to 
make  the  careless  respect  religion,  to  induce  them  to 
think  favorably  of  our  Church  and  to  engage  them  to 
lay  to  heart  the  things  that  belong  to  their  everlast- 
ing peace."  So  the  Committee  considered  it  desirable 
"that  some  ordained  ministers  of  the  first  reputation 
and  influence  should  be  missionaries." 

Early  Missionaries.  The  list  of  those  sent  into  the 
wilderness  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
abundantly  proves  how  faithfully  this  injunction  was 
kept.  If  in  later  years  the  Church  came  to  think  more 
lightly  of  the  missionary  cause  and  that  men  of  in- 
ferior gifts  might  do  for  the  rough  work  of  the 
pioneer  it  was  not  so  at  the  beginning.  Hence,  the 
Committee  sent  Gideon  Blackburn  to  the  Cherokee 
Indians  in  Tennessee  and  Dr.  James  Hall  to  the 
Potomac  and  James  Hoge  "for  six  months  to  the  State 
of  Ohio  and  the  Natchez  district,"  and  Jedediah  Chap- 
man to  the  forests  of  New  York  and  John  Doak  to 
Tennessee. 

Indian  Missions.  The  Rev.  David  Brainerd,  the 
Rev.  John  Brainerd,  the  Rev.  Charles  Beatty  and  the 
Rev.  George  Duffield,  all  members  of  the  Synod  of 
New  York,  went  on  missions  to  the  Indians  between 


OVER  THE  ALLEGHENIES  55 

the  years  1740  and  1765.  Accounts  of  all  these 
missions,  except  that  of  the  Rev.  John  Brainerd,  have 
been  published. 

In  1799  the  Assembly  obtained  from  the  Legislature 
of  Pennsylvania  a  Charter  of  Incorporation  whereby 
certain  individuals  were  entitled  to  hold  property,  both 
real  and  personal,  for  charitable  and  pious  purposes 
and  subject  to  the  order  of  the  Assembly.  That  year 
the  Standing  Committee  of  Missions  reported  to  the 

Assembly  as  follows :     "For  three  years  past 

seven  or  eight  missionaries  have  been  annually  sent 
out,  besides  a  stated  missionary  who  resides  on  the 
frontiers  of  the  country  to  direct  the  labors  of  others 
and  to  spend  six  months  of  the  year  himself  in  travel- 
ing and  preaching.    The  success  of  these  missionaries 

has  been  very  considerable They  are  annually 

forming  into  regular  congregations  the  people  who 
emigrate  from  the  interior  of  our  country  to  the  wil- 
derness that  surrounds  it  and  planting  and  cherishing 
among  them  the  seed  of  genuine  piety. 

Scope  of  the  Missions.  "There  are  four  descrip- 
tions of  people  to  whom  the  Assembly  at  present  is  en- 
deavoring to  send  missionaries : 

"i.  To  those  who  are  settled  on  our  frontiers  with 
whom,  as  just  stated,  they  have  had  much  success. 

"2.  To  certain  places  in  the  more  settled  parts 
where  the  gospel  has  not  been  regularly  established. 

"3.  To  the  black  people  or  Negroes  of  the  United 
States.  These  in  the  southern  part  of  the  Union  are 
mostly  slaves,  extremely  ignorant  and  from  the  rank 
they  hold  in  society  difficult  of  instruction. 

"4.  To  the  Indians  or  Aborigines  of  our  country. 
The  Assembly  has  not  yet  been  able  to  find  a  suitable 


56  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

missionary  to  send  among  them,  but  it  is  hoped  it  will 
not  be  long  before  more  than  one  will  be  obtained." 

We  have  given  this  full  extract  from  the  Minutes  of 
the  Standing  Committee  of  Missions  that  we  may  see 
how  from  the  first  our  Church  has  broadly  and  in  a 
statesmanlike  way  conceived  her  religious  duty  to  the 
American  Colonies.  Glancing  back  the  following  facts 
appear : 

Broad  Foundations.  First.  Before  there  was  any 
organized  home  mission  agency  the  scattered  Presby- 
terians sent  their  best  men  to  the  home  mission  field. 
The  names  quoted  above  and  many  others  that  might 
be  added  attest  this  fact. 

Second.  They  sought  and  received  the  help  of 
Scotch  and  English  Presbyterians  in  their  efforts 
which  they  recognized  were  too  large  for  their  re- 
sources. It  was  strategic  thus  to  bind  Christians  in 
two  continents  in  the  beginnings  of  an  enterprise 
which  should  powerfully  affect  all  continents. 

Third.  They  promptly  devised  a  plan  which  should 
increasingly  give  the  financial  support  needed  for  the 
great  undertaking. 

Fourth.  They  secured  early  incorporation,  thus 
providing  for  future  enlargement  through  large  bene- 
factions. 

Fifth.  They  planned  for  wider  supervision  of  the 
work.  It  seems  ludicrous  to  appoint  a  superintendent 
for  "seven  or  eight  missionaries  who  himself  should 
spend  six  months  of  the  year  in  traveling  and  preach- 
ing." But  that  act  has  the  seeds  of  all  the  extensive 
organization  and  supervision  which  has  been  one  of 
the  effective  agencies  for  the  work  of  the  Kingdom 
during  the  past  century. 


OVER  THE  ALLEGHENIES  57 

Sixth.  They  began  with  that  differentiation  of 
classes  of  people  subject  to  missionary  activity,  which 
has  only  recently  been  fully  recognized.  They  saw 
that  appeals  to  four  different  classes,  viz :  dwellers  in 
centers  of  population,  dwellers  on  the  frontiers,  Ne- 
groes and  Indians,  called  for  a  variety  of  gifts  and, 
therefore,  demanded  distinct  consideration. 

The  various  lines  of  missionary  approach  to  varie- 
ties of  population  to  be  fully  dealt  with  later  in  these 
pages  have  here  their  primal  recognition,  viz:  con- 
gested populations  in  the  East,  scattered  but  gathering 
populations  in  the  West,  and  the  exceptional  groups. 
Have  we  in  these  richer  days  advanced  very  far  be- 
yond the  statesmanship  of  the  first  Committee  in  our 
conception  of  the  task  and  our  ways  of  undertaking 
it?  We  have  verily  entered  into  their  labors  and 
sought  our  advance  along  the  lines  they  indicated. 

Synodical  Home  Missions.  A  further  illustration 
of  how  the  times  repeat  themselves,  and  how  the  later 
home  mission  problems  are  as  old  as  the  country,  is 
found  in  the  Committee's  statement  about  synodical 
home  mission  activity.    It  says : 

"The  Synods  of  Virginia,  Pittsburgh,  Kentucky  and 
the  Carolinas  are  all  employed  in  this  important  work. 
They  are  connected  with  and  are  under  the  care  of 
the  Assembly,  but  from  local  circumstances  it  has  been 
judged  expedient  that  they  should  manage  the  mis- 
sionary business  separately  from  the  Assembly  and 
some  of  them  have  manifested  a  most  commendable 
zeal  in  the  cause.  From  the  Western  Commission  of 
the  Synod  of  Virginia  nine  missionaries  were  sent 
forth  during  the  last  year.  Three  of  these  have  gone 
to  the  Indians." 


58  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

List  o£  Missionary  Societies.  The  Committee  then 
proceeds  to  give  a  list  of  the  various  missionary  opera- 
tions at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century.  They  are 
as  follows : 

First.  The  Missionary  Society  of  New  York,  in- 
stituted in  1796.  Its  main  object  was  to  "gospelize" 
the  Indians  and  in  this  it  had  such  success  that  eight- 
een missionaries  went  out  among  the  Senecas  and 
Chickasaws  who  so  affected  the  people  of  these  tribes 
that  they  besought  the  missionaries  to  take  some  of 
their  own  youth  and  so  instruct  them  that  they  might 
return  to  teach  the  Indians  the  principles  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  and  the  arts  of  civilized  life. 

Second.  The  Northern  Missionary  Society,  organ- 
ized in  1797,  as  having  established  missions  among  the 
Oneidas  in  Central  New  York. 

Third.  The  Missionary  Society  of  Connecticut,  in- 
stituted in  1798,  consisted  of  members  of  the  Congre- 
gational Association  of  Connecticut.  It  sent  as  many 
as  twelve  or  thirteen  missionaries  in  a  year,  chiefly  to 
pioneer  settlers. 

Fourth.  The  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel 
Among  the  Indians  and  Others  in  North  America.  It 
was  organized  in  Boston  in  1787  in  consequence  of  a 
commission  granted  "certain  gentlemen"  in  that  town 
from  the  Society  in  Scotland  for  Propagating  Chris- 
tian Knowledge.  This  Society,  with  considerable 
funds,  did  a  pretty  extensive  work  in  sending  mission- 
aries to  the  Indians,  establishing  schools  among  them 
and  distributing  books  to  those  who  were  able  to  read. 
It  also  labored  among  the  white  settlers  in  different 
parts  of  Massachusetts  and  distributed  among  them 
more  than  eight  thousand  volumes  of  "pious  books." 


OVER  THE  ALLEGHENIES  59 

Fifth.  A  Massachusetts  Missionary  Society  began 
its  work  in  1799,  and  in  1800  had  sent  out  four  mis- 
sionaries. 

Sixth.  The  Moravian  brethren  gave  remarkable 
service  to  the  Indians  among  whom  they  lived.  Of 
them  the  Committee  says,  "Their  labors  were  probably 
more  successful  than  those  of  any  other  Society  of 
Christians." 

Seventh.  The  zeal  of  Baptist  missionaries  is  also 
acknowledged,  especially  in  their  labors  among  the 
colored  people  of  the  southern  states. 

Eighth.  The  Arminian  Methodists  were  also  very 
successful  among  the  southern  Negroes  and  among 
poor  people  of  European  descent. 

The  Committee,  having  given  this  careful  statement 
of  its  own  work  and  also  that  of  other  Societies  in 
America,  for  its  own  instruction  and  help  proposed  to 
those  Societies  a  number  of  questions  as  to  their 
work — its  conditions,  prospects,  measures  taken,  diffi- 
culties to  be  encountered  and  "zvhat  advice  they  have 
to  give  to  the  Presbyterian  Committee."  This  remark- 
able paper  concludes  thus : 

"We  have  nothing  further  to  add  but  our  entreaties 
and  our  hopes  that  your  prayers  may  be  united  with 
ours,  that  God  may  give  the  heathen  to  His  Son  for 
an  inheritance  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for 
his  possession  and  that  He  may  speedily  become  King 
of  nations  as  he  is  King  of  saints." 

Appeal  to  Scotland.  We  have  alluded  to  the  Scot- 
tish Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel.  On 
the  second  of  May,  1804,  the  Assembly's  Committee 
sent  to  this  Society  an  earnest  appeal  for  any  funds  in 
their  possession   which  could  properly   be   used   for 


6o  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

work  among  the  American  Indians.  It  enforces  its 
plea  by  consideration  as  follows  : 

"From  the  great  extent  of  the  Assembly's  jurisdic- 
tion, from  the  respectability  of  its  character  and  its 
conspicuous  station  in  the  American  Church,  it  is 
obvious  that  its  authority  and  influence  must  be  great 
and  that  it,  hence,  possesses  peculiar  advantages  for 
diffusing  the  knowledge  of  the  Redeemer's  name  and 
the  way  of  revelation  through  Him.  Various  attempts 
have  been  made  for  this  purpose  with  very  flattering 
success  and  the  circumstance  of  revivals  of  religion 
taking  place  in  various  parts  of  the  country  points  out 
this  as  a  season  peculiarly  inviting  to  zealous  exertion, 
but  it  is  palsied  by  a  want  of  adequate  funds." 

The  appeal  then  cites  the  labors  of  Mr.  Blackburn 
among  the  Cherokees  as  a  proper  call  for  increased 
funds.  "Those  Indians,"  they  say,  "have  consented 
to  the  erection  of  a  school  in  their  country.  The  Com- 
mittee contemplated  fixing  it  within  the  limits  of  the 
United  States  but  the  Indians  preferred  and  proposed 
a  site  within  their  territory  and  have  engaged  to  send 
some  of  their  children  to  it  for  three  years  and  if  an 
experiment  having  been  made  shall  be  found  to  answer 
expectations  they  will  consent  to  its  becoming  perma- 
nent." 

It  is  evident  from  the  above  that  the  Committee 
continued  its  deep  interest  in  the  evangelization  of  the 
native  Americans  and,  by  the  limitations  of  the  treas- 
ury, was  restrained  from  doing  more  than  it  had  done. 
But,  from  the  first  days  of  any  missionary  work  in 
America,  that  for  the  natives  held  preeminence.  It  is 
all  the  more  remarkable  that  this  zeal  for  evangelizing 
the  Indians  should  have  survived  through  the  gen- 


OVER  THE  ALLEGHENIES  6i 

erations  of  Indian  barbarity  and  cruelty  to  the  early 
settlers.  Although  in  later  days  we  have  been  given 
to  idealizing  certain  traits  of  the  Indian  character,  it 
is  not  to  be  doubted  that  missionary  work  among  them 
in  the  first  hundred  years  of  our  history  had  to  be 
carried  on  in  the  face  of  the  gravest  perils. 

Presbyterial  Independence.  The  question  of  Pres- 
byterial  independence  seems  early  to  have  agitated  the 
Church.  Thus,  in  May,  1805,  the  Presbyteries  of  New 
York  and  New  Brunswick  proposed  to  the  Commit- 
tee, "That  they  may  be  permitted  to  assign  missionary 
services  within  their  own  bounds  to  be  compensated 
by  the  Funds  of  the  Assembly." 

The  proposal  did  not  appeal  to  the  Committee.  "It 
is  easy  to  see  that  if  this  principle  were  adopted  its 
operation  would  be  to  take  the  missionary  business 
in  a  short  time  entirely  from  under  the  immediate  di- 
rection of  the  Assembly  and  render  your  Committee 
of  little  other  use  than  to  apportion  the  sums  which 
each  presbytery  should  draw  from  the  Funds  of  the 
Assembly." 

Presbyterial  Authority.  Hitherto  it  had  been  the 
habit  of  the  Assembly  through  its  Committee  on  Mis- 
sions to  send  missionaries  to  any  part  of  the  country 
on  its  own  motion  and  authority.  This  is  the  first  in- 
stance of  presbyteries  claiming  the  right  of  directing 
the  mission  affairs  within  their  own  bounds.  It  is  a 
sharp  anticipation  of  the  most  modern  developments 
in  home  mission  administration. 

Immediately  following  the  decision  above  recorded 
we  find  the  Committee  sending  missionaries  to  Ken- 
tucky, to  Virginia,  to  South  Carolina,  to  the  Indian 
Territory,  to  the  State  of  Ohio,  "and  the  Natchez 


62  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

District"  and  to  the  Cherokee  Indians.  Up  to  this 
time,  therefore,  the  administration  of  home  mission 
affairs  was  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Assembly's 
Committee. 

From  1810  onward  the  records  of  the  Committee 
are  very  full,  chiefly  occupied  with  the  home  mission 
story.  Details  of  the  men  employed,  accounts  of  the 
various  fields  claiming  attention,  results  achieved, — 
all  these  find  faithful  recital  in  the  book  of  the  Com- 
mittee. And  in  general  it  is  a  story  of  steady  and 
often  rapid  progress.  Notes  of  encouragement  run 
all  through  the  pages.  In  a  record  in  181 1,  after  giving 
through  very  many  pages  the  story  of  the  missions, 
the  Committee  summarizes  it  thus : 

Marked  Progress.  "Regions  where  the  scattered 
inhabitants  heard  only  occasional  sermons  are  now 
thickly  settled  and  covered  with  respectable  and  flour- 
ishing congregations  enjoying  the  benefit  of  a  stated 
ministry  and  repaying  charity  received  by  them  in 
their  infant  state  by  contributing  to  the  support  of 

missions The  wilderness  has  blossomed  as 

the  rose.  The  regions  where  a  few  years  ago  was 
heard  only  the  howling  of  wild  beasts  and  the  shouts 
of  savage  men  churches  now  assemble  in  peace  and 
love  to  sing  praises  to  God  and  to  His  co-equal  Son." 

Those  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  were 
marked  by  wonderful  revivals,  specially  in  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee.  They  were  in  part  the  result  of  the 
intense  missionary  propaganda  in  those  states.  In 
part,  however,  they  incited  the  missionary  enthusiasm 
and  broke  new  paths  in  the  wilderness  for  the  mission- 
ary advance.     Marked  by  many  extravagances  their 


OVER  THE  ALLEGHENIES  63 

more  permanent  result  was  in  the  organization  of  an- 
other branch  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

The  Cumberland  Body.  The  Cumberland  body- 
had  its  rise  in  the  conviction  that  the  cause  of  missions 
demanded  more  heralds  of  the  gospel  than  the  schools 
were  supplying  and  that  hence  men  of  piety,  however 
deficient  in  education,  should  be  enlisted  for  the  great 
crusade.  Those  so  believing  broke  away  from  the 
Presbyterian  Church  (which  insisted  on  its  traditional 
loyalty  to  high  educational  standards)  and  organized 
the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church  which  in  1906 
came  back  to  the  main  body. 

Enlarged  Committee  on  Missions.  The  time  was 
rapidly  approaching  for  the  fuller  organization  of  the 
Church  for  her  great  task.  As  far  back  as  1807  the 
Assembly  recognized  the  fact  that  an  enlarged  mis- 
sionary committee  would  more  fully  represent  the  ex- 
panding Church.  In  these  days  of  more  widely  ex- 
tended membership  in  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  it 
is  interesting  to  observe  that  the  motive  prompting  to 
such  enlargement  was  felt  in  1807,  when  the  Assembly 
constituted  the  Committee  of  Missions  by  members 
from  the  following  synods :  Synod  of  Albany,  Synod 
of  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  Synod  of  Philadelphia, 
Synod  of  Pittsburgh,  Synod  of  Virginia,  Synod  of 
Kentucky,  Synod  of  the  Carolinas. 

From  1810  to  1816  there  was  steady  and  rapid  ad- 
vance. An  increasing  number  of  missionaries  were 
sent  into  the  West  as  far  as  the  Mississippi  River. 
Indian  work  received  annual  attention.  In  1814  Con- 
gress was  petitioned  for  a  grant  of  land  to  assist  in 
conducting  a  mission  to  the  Indians.     The  President 


64  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

of  the  United  States  was  also  asked  to  give  assent 
to  Indian  work  in  the  belief  that  the  hands  of  the  mis- 
sionary would  thus  be  strengthened, — a  request  to 
which  he  promptly  and  graciously  responded. 

An  advance  in  missionary  administration  was  taken 
when  authority  was  given  presbyteries  to  employ  mis- 
sionaries within  their  own  bounds  at  such  places  as 
seemed  to  them  to  have  the  greatest  need  of  mission- 
aries. 

At  the  Assembly  in  1812  a  communication  was  re- 
ceived from  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions  in  which  that  Board  suggested 
the  expedienced  of  cooperation  between  the  two  mis- 
sionary agencies.  Our  Assembly's  reply  was  "that  as 
the  business  of  Foreign  Missions  may  probably  be  best 
managed  under  the  direction  of  a  single  board,  so  the 
numerous  and  extensive  engagements  of  the  Assembly 
in  regard  to  domestic  missions  render  it  extremely  in- 
convenient at  this  time  to  take  a  part  in  Foreign  Mis- 
sions. 

How  extensive  the  "engagements"  of  the  Committee 
had  at  this  time  become  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
in  181 5,  the  year  preceding  the  organization  of  the 
Home  Board,  the  appointment  of  missionaries  covered 
the  distance  from  the  Canadian  line  on  the  north  and 
from  Long  Island  on  the  east  to  the  Indian  Territory 
on  the  west  and  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  on  the  south. 

Organization  of  the  Board.  The  organization  of 
the  present  Board  of  Home  Missions  occurred  in  1816. 
The  action  of  the  Committee  recommending  it  is  so 
important  that  we  give  it  in  full : 

"For  the  purpose  of  enlarging  the  sphere  of  our 
missionary  operations  and  infusing  new  vigor  into  the 


OVER  THE  ALLEGHENIES  65 

cause,  your  Committee  would  respectfully  recommend 
a  change  of  the  style  and  enlargement  of  the  powers 
of  the  Committee  of  Missions.  If,  instead  of  continu- 
ing to  this  body  the  charter  of  a  Committee  bound  in 
all  cases  to  act  according  to  the  instructions  of  the 
General  Assembly  and  under  the  necessity  of  receiv- 
ing its  sanction  to  give  validity  to  all  the  measures 
which  it  may  propose,  the  Committee  of  Missions  were 
enacted  into  a  Board  with  full  powers  to  transact  all 
the  business  of  the  missionary  cause,  only  requiring 
the  Board  to  report  annually  to  the  Assembly,  it  would 
then  be  able  to  carry  on  the  missionary  business  with 
all  the  vigor  and  unity  of  design  that  would  be  found 
in  a  society  originated  for  that  purpose  and  at  the 
same  time  would  enjoy  all  the  benefit  that  the  counsel 
and  advice  of  the  General  Assembly  could  afford. 

*'With  these  views  it  is  respectfully  recommended 

*'That  the  title  of  the  Committee  be  changed  for  that 
of  "The  Board  of  Missions  acting  under  the  authority 
of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  United  States  of  America." 

The  Committee  then  suggests  the  addition  to  the 
Committee  of  the  following  names,  the  whole  to  con- 
stitute the  new  Board:  The  Rev.  John  B.  Romeyn, 
D.D.,  The  Rev.  Samuel  Miller,  D.D.,  Messrs.  Samuel 
Bayard,  Robert  Ralston,  Robert  Lennox,  John  R.  B. 
Rodgers,  John  E.  Caldwell,  Divie  Bethune  and  Zacha- 
riah  Lewis. 

Also  that  the  Board  be  authorized  to  appoint  mis- 
sionaries whenever  they  may  deem  proper  and  to  make 
such  advances  to  missionaries  as  may  be  judged  neces- 
sary. 

Also  that  the  Board  be  authorized  and  directed  to 
5 


66  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

take  measures  for  establishing  throughout  our 
churches  auxiHary  missionary  societies  and  that  to  the 
churches  be  recommended  the  estabHshment  of  such 
societies. 

The  three  great  advantages  gained  by  this  change 
were — an  increase  of  responsibiUty,  greater  unity  and 
authority  of  the  administration  of  the  missionary  busi- 
ness and  closer  missionary  relations  with  the  churches 
by  the  organization  of  local  societies. 

Foreign  Missions.  The  cause  of  foreign  missions 
was  now  attracting  increased  attention  and  the  sugges- 
tion was  made  to  the  Board  that  it  undertake  that 
service  as  a  department  of  its  work.  To  this  the 
Board  very  wisely  replied  that  "they  are  inclined  to 
believe  that  the  union  of  foreign  with  domestic  mis- 
sions would  produce  too  great  complexity  in  the  af- 
fairs of  the  Board  and  render  the  pressure  of  business 
too  severe  and  burdensome." 

They  suggested  that  a  Foreign  Board  be  appointed 
in  which  the  Presbyterian  Church,  the  Reformed 
Dutch  Church,  the  Associated  Reformed  Church  and 
other  Churches  which  adopted  the  same  creed  should 
unite  to  carry  on  the  foreign  work. 

This  suggestion  was  not  adopted,  but  the  effect  of 
it  was  to  turn  the  attention  of  the  Church  more  defi- 
nitely to  the  great  world  enterprise  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions. It  hastened  thus  the  organization  of  our  Board 
of  Foreign  Missions. 

Following  the  better  equipment  of  the  Church  for 
carrying  on  the  project  of  home  evangelization  the 
next  f  fteen  or  twenty  years  were  times  of  rapid  ex- 
pansion and  progress.  It  was  the  era  of  staking  out 
a  continent  for  Christian  service.    In  1787  the  ordi- 


OVER  THE  ALLEGHENIES  ^y 

nance  was  passed  by  the  National  Congress  dedicating 
the  "Old  Northwest,"  as  the  district  which  afterward 
comprised  the  five  great  States  of  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Michigan,  Ohio  and  Wisconsin  was  called,  to  freedom, 
declaring  that  "religion,  morality  and  knowledge  being 
necessary  to  good  government  and  the  happiness  of 
mankind,  schools  and  the  means  of  education  should 
be  forever  encouraged." 

The  Old  Northwest.  This  wonderful  instrument 
which  dedicated  a  wilderness  to  the  highest  moral  and 
intellectual  ideals  opened  the  way  for  the  most  mar- 
vellous transformations  of  virgin  territory  this  coun- 
try has  ever  witnessed.  It  made  of  that  territory  the 
home  of  the  purest  Americanism,  the  seed  plot  of  the 
finest  type  of  Christian  civilization. 

The  settlements  which  developed  that  territory  with 
such  magical  rapidity  began  a  year  after  the  passage  of 
the  ordinance  of  1787,  when  a  company  of  forty-seven 
brave  souls  from  Massachusetts  pushed  down  the  Ohio 
River  from  Fort  Duquesne  and  making  land  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Muskingum  settled  Marietta  and  dedi- 
cated it  to  education  and  religion  by  opening  a  school 
and  founding  a  church.  Of  this  little  company  George 
Washington  said : 

"No  colony  in  America  was  ever  settled  under  such 
favorable  auspices  as  that  which  has  just  commenced 
at  Muskingum.  Information,  property  and  strength 
will  be  its  characteristic.  I  know  many  of  the  settlers 
personally  and  there  never  were  men  better  calculated 
to  promote  the  welfare  of  such  a  community." 

Washington's  prophecy  was  justified.  In  a  decade 
churches  were  founded  and  schools  begun  up  and 
down  the  fertile  valleys  of  southern  Ohio. 


68  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

Occupation  of  the  West.  Similar  pioneer  activity 
prevailed  in  northern  Ohio.  The  Western  Reserve 
was  laid  out  by  a  Connecticut  company  and  was  first 
called  "New  Connecticut."  These  early  settlers  were 
for  the  most  part  Congregationalists.  They  were 
strongly  reenforced  throughout  the  state  by  Presby- 
terians from  western  Pennsylvania.  In  1814  there 
were  so  many  churches  in  Ohio  that  the  Synod  of 
Ohio  was  formed,  consisting  of  three  presbyteries. 
Fifteen  years  later  there  were  fifteen  presbyteries. 
The  ministers  had  increased  from  forty-four  to  two 
hundred  sixteen. 

Western  Colleges.  In  183 1  the  Presbyterian 
strength  in  that  state  had  grown  to  twenty-six  thou- 
sand five  hundred  six  church  members.  The  devotion 
to  Christian  education  is  evidenced  by  the  number 
of  colleges  which  sprang  into  existence.  Thus,  Mari- 
etta College,  Miami  University,  Western  Reserve  Col- 
lege and  Oberlin  College  stand  for  types  of  the  best 
American  colleges.  The  other  four  states  that  grew 
out  of  the  "Old  Northwest"  exhibited  a  like  devotion 
to  education.  Christian  academies  and  colleges  every- 
where put  a  Christian  stamp  on  new  communities. 
In  this  splendid  educational  progress  the  Presbyterian 
Church  has  taken  a  leading  part.  In  Indiana  such 
colleges  as  Hanover  and  Wabash,  in  Illinois  such  as 
Monmouth  and  Illinois  Colleges,  Lake  Forest  and 
Blackburn  Universities,  have  enabled  intelligence  to 
keep  pace  with  the  progress  of  the  state.  In  Wiscon- 
sin such  colleges  as  Carroll  and  Beloit  have  laid  foun- 
dations for  learning  and  culture. 


OVER  THE  ALLEGHENIES  69 

The  records  of  the  Home  Board  durhig  those  years 
give  the  story  of  missionary  advancement  in  detail. 
More  missionaries  were  sent  out  from  year  to  year  in 
response  to  the  appeals  of  the  growing  centers.  Every- 
where the  churches  grew  in  numbers  and  influence. 
Thus,  in  1816,  when  the  Board  was  organized,  there 
were  forty-three  presbyteries.  In  ten  years  the  num- 
ber was  doubled.  In  that  time  church  membership 
rose  from  forty  thousand  to  one  hundred  twenty-two 
thousand,  an  increase  of  over  three  hundred  per  cent. 

Theological  Education.  The  period  between  1825 
and  1835  may  be  characterized  as  peculiarly  a  time  of 
organization.  Education,  as  we  have  said,  advanced 
by  leaps  and  bounds.  Academies  and  colleges  were 
everywhere  appearing.  But  education  alone  did  not 
equip  men  to  preach  the  gospel,  and  the  crying  need 
of  the  West  at  that  time  was  for  preachers.  The 
Board  was  well  equipped  to  send  out  missionaries,  but 
where  should  they  be  found?  The  Board  of  Educa- 
tion (founded  in  1819)  was  fostering  education.  But 
where  were  the  schools  of  the  prophets?  This  need 
led  to  quick  endeavors  to  open  theological  schools. 
The  spirit  of  evangelization,  the  result  of  the  great 
revivals  which  from  1800  on  had  swept  over  the  coun- 
try, now  sought  to  body  forth  its  endeavors.  In  quick 
succession  Auburn  Seminary,  the  Western  Theological 
Seminary  at  Allegheny,  the  Union  Seminary  at  Hamp- 
den— Sidney  in  Virginia,  the  college  at  Maryville, 
Tennessee,  which  was  at  once  a  college  and  a  theo- 
logical seminary.  Lane  Seminary  in  Cincinnati  and  the 
New  Albany  Seminary — later  the  Theological  Semi- 
nary of  the  Northwest  at  Chicago,  were  established 


70  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

and  gave  the  Board  of  Missions  a  chance  to  send  men 
to  the  ripening  fields. 

This  was  the  most  fruitful  missionary  period  of  the 
nineteenth  century  and  the  Board,  enlarged  in  mem- 
bership and  in  responsibility,  proved  itself  equal  to  its 
opportunity. 

As  to  its  administration  during  this  time  there  were 
few  changes  calling  for  note.  The  following  are,  how- 
ever, worth  a  passing  record. 

A  Missionary  Magazine.  In  1804  the  General  As- 
sembly ordered  the  publication  of  a  missionary  maga- 
zine by  the  Committee  on  Home  Missions.  It  was  the 
beginning  of  a  good  many  troubles.  With  varying 
fortunes  the  magazine  struggled  on  until  1841,  when 
the  union  of  Home  and  Foreign  missionary  interests 
in  a  magazine  was  ordered  by  the  Assembly.  The 
Foreign  Board  had  for  a  short  time  been  publishing  a 
"Missionary  Chronicle."  It  was  now  agreed  it  should 
thenceforth  represent  both  interests.  By  that  agree- 
ment the  Home  Board  should  furnish  eight  pages  and 
the  Foreign  Board  twenty-four  for  a  magazine  of 
thirty-two  pages — the  Board  to  divide  the  expenses 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  pages  occupied  by  each. 
This  plan  was  continued  a  number  of  years,  other 
Boards,  as  they  were  organized,  sharing  the  privileges 
and  responsibilities  of  the  magazine.  After  an  experi- 
ment of  separate  magazines  of  various  Boards  into 
one,  a  union  was  effected  under  the  title  of  The 
Church  at  Home  and  Abroad  and  changed  afterwards 
to  The  Assembly  Herald,  and  under  its  new  name, 
The  New  Bra  Magazine,  represents  officially  the  nine 
Boards  of  the  Church. 


OVER  THE  ALLEGHENIES  71 

Local  Supervision.  As  the  further  reaches  of  the 
West  were  settled  there  was  manifest  in  some  quarters 
a  growing  desire  for  more  local  supei-vision.  That 
which  in  recent  years  has  made  necessary  some 
changes  in  the  form  of  administration  appeared  as 
early  as  1835.  At  that  time  an  agent  of  the  Board  in 
Pittsburgh  (Mr.  Patterson)  raised  the  question  of  a 
subsidiary  Home  Board  in  that  city.  The  Board  re- 
plied that  they  had  no  power  to  grant  such  a  request, 
and  if  they  had  it  would  be  hazardous  to  that  unity 
of  views  and  action  which  is  highly  important  in  all 
concerns  entrusted  to  the  management  of  the  Board. 

In  1841  a  proposal  came  to  the  Board  from  the 
Presbytery  of  Mississippi  that  it  would  reserve  to 
itself  the  right  of  appointing  missionaries  within  its 
bounds  and  would  fix  the  amount  of  compensation 
each  missionary  should  receive.  The  Board  declined 
the  overture  on  the  ground  that  the  authority  given  it 
by  the  General  Assembly  was  not  transf  errable.  Even 
if  it  had  the  power  it  would  be  unwise  thus  to  delegate 
it  to  any  presbytery  because  the  plan  would  be  inef- 
ficient and  of  no  value  to  the  presbytery. 

"The  plan  of  the  Board  is  to  act  through  the  pres- 
bytery in  all  portions  of  the  Church.  On  this  general 
plan  it  is  believed  all  the  difficulties  mentioned  by  the 
presbytery  as  peculiar  to  their  remote  situation  may 
easily  be  obviated,  while  the  unity  of  our  operations, 
so  essential  to  their  efficiency  in  the  whole  and  in  each 
portion  of  the  missionary  field,  will  be  maintained." 

Executive  Committee  for  the  West.  In  1845  the 
General  Assembly  directed  the  Board  to  appoint  a 
separate  Executive  Committee  for  the  West  to  be 
located  in  Louisville.    It  was  to  embrace  the  Synods 


^2  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

of  Cincinnati,  Indiana,  Northern  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Missouri,  Kentucky,  West  Tennessee,  Mississippi  and 
Alabama.  Missionaries  were  instructed  to  send  quar- 
terly reports  to  the  Board  and  also  to  the  Louisville 
Committee. 

Applications  from  presbyteries  for  the  appointment 
of  missionaries  were  to  be  made  to  the  Western  Com- 
mittee, the  Committee  to  issue  commissions  but  only 
up  to  the  ability  of  their  own  treasury,  except  by  spe- 
cial permission  of  the  Board.  This  action  gave  extensive 
power  to  the  western  office,  which  was  directed  in  loy- 
alty to  the  Board  to  carry  into  effect  any  instructions 
given  them  by  the  Board. 

A  good  deal  of  correspondence  developed  in  sub- 
sequent years,  showing  that  there  was  not  perfect 
agreement  between  the  Board  and  its  western  office. 
Thus,  in  1846  the  Louisville  Committee  desired  such 
change  in  plans  as  would  require  the  missionaries  to 
report  to  the  western  office  only.  This  change  the 
Board  declined  to  make. 

A  request  was  also  made  at  the  same  time  that  funds 
for  payment  of  missionaries  should  be  sent  by  the 
Board  in  bulk  to  Louisville  and  by  that  office  be  trans- 
mitted to  the  missionaries.  This  the  Board  also  de- 
clined, saying  they  would  "continue  to  pay  in  the  West 
as  in  other  portions  of  the  field  as  may  be  needed  by 
checks  sent  directly  to  the  missionaries." 

The  plan  thus  finally  agreed  upon  between  the 
Board  and  the  western  office  operated  successfully  for 
many  years.  However,  the  means  of  communication 
between  east  and  west  became  ampler  and  there 
seemed  less  call  for  the  local  supervision.  The  unity 
of   the   Board   as   an   institution   asserted    itself    as 


OVER  THE  ALLEGHENIES  73 

adapted  and  sufficient  for  all  parts  of  the  country  and 
while  agencies  remained  in  various  places  to  stimulate 
interest  and  give  close  consideration  of  local  needs  the 
tendency  to  centralization  of  administration  increased. 

Incorporation  of  the  Board.  In  March,  1841,  a 
further  important  step  in  administration  was  taken  by  a 
proposal  for  incorporation.  In  the  light  of  modern  ex- 
perience the  only  wonder  is  that  it  was  not  sought  at  a 
much  earlier  date.  The  Charter  prescribed  that  its  incor- 
porators should  be  styled  "Trustees  of  the  Board  of 
Missions  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church."  They  were  given  the  powers  usually  com- 
mitted to  such  incorporators,  to  manage  their  funds 
and  porperty  comitted  to  their  care,  "in  such  manner 
as  should  be  most  advantageous,  not  being  contrary 
to  law." 

Under  this  Charter,  with  but  slight  changes,  the 
Board  has  continued  to  the  present  time,  administer- 
ing faithfully  and  wisely  the  large  properties  entrusted 
to  its  care. 

Germ  o£  Board  o£  Church  Erection.     In  June, 

1844,  there  occurred  the  first  step  which  ultimately 
led  to  the  Board  of  Church  Erection.  The  record  is 
as  follows : 

"The  Board  having  met  to  consider  the  plan  of 
church  extension  adopted  by  the  General  Asesmbly 
and  referred  to  the  Board  to  be  carried  into  effect,  it 
Was 

"Resolved,  First,  that  it  is  expedient  the  Committee 
on  Church  Extension  consist  of  members  of  the  Board 
Avho  can  conveniently  meet  together  at  the  missionary 


74  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

office  when  applications  for  aid  will  be  mad^  and  when 
the  information  necessary  to  direct  them  in  their  work 
will  be  most  naturally  obtained." 

Following  records  show  that  this  Committee  held 
regular  meetings  and  made  regular  reports  to  the 
Board.  In  one  of  the  earliest  mentions  of  the  Com- 
mittee it  was  directed  by  the  Board  to  procure  a  num- 
ber of  plans  of  church  edifices  to  send  to  congregations 
who  wish  them.  If  this  direction  had  been  more  fully 
and  persistently  obeyed,  it  would  have  saved  the 
Church  from  a  good  deal  of  bad  architecture  with 
which  so  many  of  our  churches  are  afflicted. 

Spanish  and  French  Population.  One  further 
item  of  that  period  is  of  importance  in  view  of  recent 
history.  There  was  in  all  the  West  and  Southwest  a 
large  Spanish  and  French  population — the  inheritance 
largely  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase.  In  1848  the  re- 
ligious needs  of  these  people  were  brought  to  the  at- 
tention of  the  Board,  by  action  of  the  Synod  of  Ohio. 
The  Board  resolved, 

"That  this  Board  feel  with  the  Synod  the  import- 
ance of  doing  whatever  can  be  done  for  the  evangel- 
izing of  the  French  and  Spanish  population  of  the 
United  States  and  so  far  as  suitable  missionaries  can 
be  obtained  for  this  population  the  Board  are  pre- 
pared to  do  their  part  in  sending  them  forth  and  sus- 
taining them." 

How  prophetic  of  great  responsibility  for  the  Latin 
race  with  which  the  Church  in  America  is  now  con- 
fronted ! 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS 

ETHNOLOGICAL  studies  have  scarce  revealed 
in  any  savage  race  a  finer  type  of  essential  ele- 
ments of  manhood  than  that  of  the  American 
Indian.  He  has  traits  of  character  and  natural  en- 
dowments which  make  not  wholly  inappropriate  the 
designation  sometimes  given  him — the  noble  Red  Man. 
Those  traits  and  endowments  have  given  intense  inter- 
est to  the  studies  which  seek  his  origin.  But  that 
origin  is  still  a  problem. 

Origin.  The  most  probable  suggestion  connects 
him  with  the  Asiatics.  In  physical  characteristics  he 
more  nearly  approaches  the  yellow  race  of  the  Orient 
than  any  other.  If  any  prehistoric  bridge  carried  him 
across  Bering  Strait  it  has  long  since  been  submerged. 
But  we  leave  the  mystery  of  the  Indian's  origin  as  we 
found  it  and  pass  on  to  his  relations  to  the  missionary 
work  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

We  have  touched  on  the  sporadic  early  missionary 
endeavors  to  reach  our  native  population.  We  have 
mentioned  some  of  the  names  which  glorified  those  en- 
deavors. Like  stars  out  of  a  dark  sky  the  names  of 
Roger  Williams,  John  Eliot,  Jonathan  Edwards,  John 
Sargent  and  David  Brainerd  shine  forth  in  heroic 
splendor.  In  later  days,  when  there  was  an  organiza- 
tion in  the  Presbyterian  Church  for  doing  missionary 
work,  one  of  the  first  claims  on  its  activity  was  that 

75 


'jd  THE  SOUIv  OF  AMERICA 

of  the  scattered,  impoverished  and  often  hostile  tribes 
of  the  Indians.  They  were  scattered  by  the  incursions 
of  the  white  man ;  they  were  impoverished  by  his  raid 
upon  their  lands,  and  they  were  made  hostile  by 
treaties  broken  and  wrongs  inflicted  almost  without 
number.  In  the  face  of  the  difficulties  thus  created 
the  Committee  on  Missions  sent  devoted  men  to  bring 
the  message  of  salvation  to  tribes  thus  made  difficult 
of  access. 

Gideon  Blackburn.  The  first  missionary  was  the 
Rev.  Gideon  Blackburn,  sent  to  the  Cherokees  in 
Georgia  by  the  Standing  Committee  on  Missions  in 
1803.  Bom  in  Virginia,  Blackburn's  family  yielded  to 
the  migrating  movement  that  was  carrying  so  many 
Scotch-Irish  into  Tennessee.  In  Washington  County 
in  that  state  he  came  under  the  influence  of  another 
pioneer,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Doak,  who  had  earned  the 
title  of  "The  Apostle  of  learning  and  religion  in  the 
Southwest."  It  was  he  who  crossed  the  Alleghenies 
before  there  were  any  roads  and  established  Martins' 
Academy  (afterward  Washington  College)  "the  first 
literary  institution  in  the  Mississippi  Valley." 

Under  Mr.  Doak's  guidance  young  Blackburn  al- 
most completed  his  literary  course.  His  family  then 
moving  fifty  miles  west  he  finished  his  education  for 
the  ministry  under  Dr.  Robert  Henderson  at  Dan- 
dridge,  Tennessee.  From  Henderson,  Mr.  Blackburn 
got  some  of  the  inspiration  for  powerful  speech  which 
characterized  all  his  missionary  labors.  He  found  his 
first  field  of  labor  at  Maryville,  Tennessee,  which  he 
reached  when  on  a  march  with  soldiers  who  were 
hurried  to  the  protection  of  a  fort  in  that  neighbor- 
hood.    His  early  missionary  life  was  one  of  great 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS  '71 

hardships  and  constant  peril.  He  was  a  preacher  of 
such  power  that  the  scattered  settlements  flocked  to  his 
preaching, — now  in  the  woods,  again  in  a  fort,  and 
again  in  the  rude  home  of  some  pioneer.  He  soon  had 
the  pleasure  of  organizing  two  churches,  standing  yet 
as  witnesses  of  his  devotion,  New  Providence  at 
Maryville  and  Eusebia,  ten  miles  away. 

But  Blackburn's  chief  title  to  the  gratitude  of  the 
Church  is  in  his  remarkable  work  for  the  Cherokee 
Indians.  Their  need  and  their  capacity  appealed  to 
him  strongly.  A  bright  and  intelligent  race,  they  gave 
more  promise  of  profiting  by  better  opportunities  than 
any  other  tribe.  He  appealed  to  the  Committee  of 
Missions  for  help.  They  gave  him  a  commission  and 
two  hundred  dollars  for  support  of  the  mission  for 
two  months.  Evidently  the  Committee  regarded  it 
only  as  an  experiment.  But  the  indefatigable  mission- 
ary called  himself  committed  to  the  work  for  life. 
Calling  a  council  of  two  thousand  Indians  he  secured 
their  assent  to  his  plans  and  their  promise  to  send  their 
children  to  the  school  he  would  open.  When  his 
school  was  well  under  way  he  gathered  Indians  and 
white  settlers  with  his  scholars  for  a  treaty  of  friend- 
ship and  cooperation.  Governor  Sevier,  who  had 
often  braved  the  horrors  of  war  in  those  same  woods, 
was  present  and  said  to  Blackburn,  tears  running  down 
his  face, 

"I  have  often  stood  unmoved  amidst  showers  of 
bullets  from  Indian  rifles,  but  this  eflfectually  unmans 
me.  I  see  civilization  taking  the  ground  of  barbarism 
and  the  praises  of  Jesus  succeeding  the  war  whoop  of 
the  savages." 


78  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

In  the  course  of  a  few  years  Blackburn  had  so  de- 
veloped the  tribe  that  he  reported  large  advance 
toward  industrial  life  among  those  whom  he  found  as 
nomadic  savages.  He  is  justly  regarded  as  the  prophet 
who  pointed  the  way  to  that  path  of  Indian  service 
which  only  recently  the  Church  has  been  wise  enough 
to  follow — uniting  evangelism  and  education  with  in- 
dustrial and  social  service. 

The  "Six  Nations."  In  1811  the  New  York  Mis- 
sionary Society  established  a  mission  among  the  rem- 
nants of  the  "Six  Nations"  in  western  New  York  to 
the  Wyandots  and  to  scattered  tribes  in  the  Ohio  Ter- 
ritory. In  1870  it  came  under  control  of  the  Presby- 
tery of  Buffalo  and  the  Board  of  Home  Missions.  In 
1818  a  "United  Foreign  Missionary  Society"  was 
organized  by  a  union  of  Presbyterian  and  Dutch 
Churches,  the  object  of  which  was  declared  to  be  the 
"spreading  of  the  gospel  among  the  Indians  of  North 
America,  the  inhabitants  of  Mexico  and  South  Amer- 
ica and  other  portions  of  the  heathen  and  anti-Chris- 
tion  world."  In  eight  years  nine  missions  had  been 
founded  with  sixty  missionaries. 

As  this  was  regarded  as  chiefly  foreign  work,  in 
1826  it  passed  under  the  control  of  the  "American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions"  and  for 
the  next  five  years  almost  all  the  Presbyterian  work 
for  Indians  was  conducted  through  this  channel. 

Division  in  1839.  When  in  1839  the  Church  was 
divided  into  Old  and  New  School,  the  Indian  work 
remained  under  the  care  of  the  American  Board  while 
that  of  the  Old  School  was  conducted  by  the  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions  which  had  been  organized  in  1837. 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS  79 

The  two  branches  united  in  1870,  but  the  Indian  work 
remained  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  the  Foreign  Board. 

In  1865  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  began  in  ear- 
nest the  estabHshing  of  missions  among  the  Indians. 
The  work  by  the  Foreign  Board  continued  until  1893, 
when  it  was  transferred  to  the  Home  Board. 

Some  important  movements,  begun  at  an  earher  date 
but  bearing  fruit  to  the  present  time,  now  claim  our 
notice. 

The  Nez  Perces.  There  is  no  more  dramatic  story  in 
the  history  of  Indian  missions  than  that  of  the  Nez  Perces 

of  Idaho.  It  has  often  been  told,  but  it  so  mightily 
influenced  the  better  organization  of  missionary  work 
for  our  native  population  that  a  sketch  of  it  is  im- 
portant. In  183 1  four  Nez  Perces  chiefs,  after  a  peril- 
ous journey  of  months,  found  their  way  to  the  city  of 
St.  Louis.  They  came  not  as  adventurers  but  as  ear- 
nest souls  in  search  of  "the  white  man's  Book."  Gen- 
eral Clark,  through  whom  perhaps  they  had  heard  of 
"The  Book"  on  the  Lewis  and  Clark  Expedition  to  the 
waters  of  the  Columbia  a  few  years  before,  showed 
them  every  courtesy  and  took  them  to  see  the  sights 
of  the  young  city,  including  some  services  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  Worn  by  their  journey  over 
the  Rockies  and  the  plains,  the  two  old  chiefs  died. 
The  young  chiefs  prepared  for  the  journey  home. 
General  Clark  gave  them  a  farewell  dinner.  At  this 
feast  one  of  the  chiefs  poured  out  his  soul  in  strains 
not  often  matched  in  native  eloquence.  His  plaint 
was  that  while  they  had  been  shown  many  kindnesses 
they  had  not  found  "The  Book"  for  which  they  had 
come.    He  closed  in  these  words. 


8o  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

"I  am  going  back  the  long  trail  to  my  people  in  the 
dark  land.  You  make  my  feet  heavy  with  gifts  and 
my  moccasins  will  grow  old  in  carrying  them;  and 
yet  The  Book  was  not  among  them.  When  I  tell  my 
poor  blind  people,  after  one  more  snow,  in  the  council 
that  I  did  not  bring  The  Book,  no  word  will  be  spoken 
by  our  old  men  or  by  our  young  braves.  One  by  one 
they  will  rise  up  and  go  out  in  silence.  My  people  will 
die  in  darkness  and  they  will  go  on  a  long  path  to  other 
hunting  grounds.  No  white  man  will  go  with  them 
and  no  white  man's  Book  to  make  the  way  plain.  I 
have  no  more  words." 

No  wonder  such  pathetic  eloquence  stirred  the  heart 
of  the  Church ! 

The  Methodist  Church  was  the  first  to  enter  the 
field,  sending  the  Rev.  Jason  Lee,  who  by  patriotic 
efforts  shares  with  Dr.  Marcus  Whitman  the  honor 
of  having  set  in  motion  that  series  of  events  which 
culminated  in  making  Oregon  and  the  rest  of  the  Pa- 
cific Coast  an  American  possession. 

Whitman  and  Spaulding.  In  1835  the  Rev.  Sam- 
uel Parker  and  Dr.  Whitman,  then  a  young  physician, 
were  asked  to  explore  the  territory  and  prepare  the 
way  for  a  mission.  The  following  March,  Dr.  Whit- 
man and  the  Rev.  H.  H.  Spaulding,  with  their  brides, 
undertook  the  long  journey  over  the  mountains.  On 
September  second,  1836,  after  seven  months  of  travel, 
they  reached  Fort  Walla  Walla,  Washington,  and  be- 
gan their  work, — the  Whitmans  among  the  Cayuse 
and  the  Spauldings  among  the  Nez  Perces. 

For  eleven  years  the  work  prospered,  the  most  nota- 
ble even  of  those  years  being  Whitman's  famous  ride 
from  Oregon  to  Washington  to  save  the  great  North- 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS  8i 

west  to  the  American  Union.  Then  came  a  blow 
which  put  an  end  to  missionary  work  for  twenty-four 
years.  In  an  unexplained  attack  by  the  Indians  whom 
the  missionaries  had  so  faithfully  served,  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Whitman  were  massacred.  The  Spauldings  barely 
escaped  with  their  lives. 

In  1871  there  came  a  change.  Mr.  Spaulding  re- 
turned to  the  field  of  his  former  labors  and  was  warm- 
ly welcomed  by  many  who  recalled  his  years  of  sacri- 
fice and  service  on  their  behalf.  A  revival  of  religion 
followed.  During  the  first  year  the  veteran  mission- 
ary baptized  a  hundred  and  eighty-four  converts. 
When,  in  1874,  he  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  little  ceme- 
tery at  Lapwai,  Idaho,  six  hundred  ninety-six  converts 
had  been  gathered  as  the  fruit  of  three  years'  toil. 

Miss  Sue  McBeth.  At  this  time  there  came  to  the 
mission  a  consecrated  woman  whose  labors  were  des- 
tined to  have  a  most  far-reaching  influence  on  the 
lives  of  the  Nez  Perces.  Miss  Sue  McBeth,  a  gifted 
woman,  after  years  of  experience  as  a  teacher  and  a 
missionary,  heard  the  appeal  of  the  Nez  Perces  In- 
dians and,  though  partially  paralyzed  and  broken 
down  by  sorrows,  she  rallied  her  strength  and  went  to 
Idaho — not  to  die,  as  her  friends  thought,  but  to  live 
a  life  of  glorious  service  and  fruitage  as  God  ordered. 
She  taught  at  first  in  a  government  school,  giving  her 
leisure  time  to  training  a  class  of  promising  Nez 
Perces  boys.  When  reports  reached  her  of  a  com- 
plaint that  the  government  school  was  harboring  a 
Presbyterian  theological  seminary  she  promptly  re- 
signed the  government  position ;  thenceforth  giving 
herself  to  the  work  of  training  the  young  men  for  mis- 
sionary service. 
6 


82  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

For  many  years  this  work  went  on.  Her  influence 
was  unbounded.  The  brightest  boys  of  the  tribe  came 
to  her  school.  Women  and  children  came  to  her 
cottage  for  instruction.  Of  her  and  her  service  Gen- 
eral O.  O.  Howard  wrote: 

"Her  work  is  filling  this  charming  little  village  with 
homes  and  though  she  cannot  visit  them  her  pupils' 
houses  are  becoming  neat  and  cleanly.  The  wife  is 
becoming  industrious  within  doors,  sews,  knits  and 
cooks.  The  fences  are  up,  the  fields  are  planted.  Oh ! 
that  men  could  see  that  this  faithful  teaching  has  the 
speedy  effect  to  change  the  heart  of  the  individual 
man.     Then  all  the  fruits  of  civilization  follow." 

On  her  death  in  1893  the  work  was  carried  on  by 
her  like-minded  sister,  Miss  Kate  McBeth,  until  she, 
too,  was  called  home  in  October,  191 5.  In  honor  of 
these  sisters  the  name  of  the  station  has  been  changed 
from  Lapw^ai  Mission  to  the  McBeth  Mission. 

Native  Pastors.  Several  devoted  missionaries  have 
been  the  fruit  of  that  school.  Robert  Williams  was 
the  first  of  the  ordained  Nez  Perces  pastors.  By  his 
preaching  James  Hayes  was  converted,  who  became 
the  beloved  pastor  of  the  Kamiah  Church  and  a  veri- 
table apostle  to  Umatillas,  Bannocks,  Shoshones  and 
other  surrounding  tribes  to  whom,  in  apostolic  zeal  in 
many  missionary  journeys,  he  preached  the  gospel.  In 
the  way  of  raising  up  native  helpers  no  Indian  mission 
has  been  more  fruitful  than  that  among  the  Nez 
Perces,  due  mainly  to  the  devoted  lives  and  the  capable 
service  of  the  McBeth  sisters.  In  1885  the  Nez  Perces 
Presbyterian  Church  was  the  largest  in  the  Pacific 
Northwest. 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS  83 

The  Dakotas.  The  Sioux  (or  Dakotas,  as  they  call 
themselves)  constituted  the  most  numerous,  powerful 
and  warlike  tribe.  They  occupied  Minnesota,  North 
and  South  Dakota  and  westward  as  far  as  Wyoming. 
The  Revs.  Samuel  W.  and  Gideon  A.  Pond  from 
Washington,  Connecticut,  in  1834  at  their  own  charges 
went  to  Minnesota,  as  they  expressed  it  **to  better  the 
condition  of  the  Dakotas."  They  built  their  cabin 
on  the  shore  of  Lake  Harriet,  now  within  the  city  of 
Minneapolis,  and  full  of  hope  began  their  labors. 

The  same  year  the  Rev.  Thomas  S.  Williamson, 
M.D.,  a  godly  physician,  was  sent  to  the  Dakotas  by 
the  American  Board.  In  1836  the  first  Dakota  church 
was  organized  with  seven  Indian  and  five  white  mem- 
bers. A  year  later  the  mission  was  strengthen  by  the 
arrival  of  the  Rev.  Stephen  H.  Riggs  and  his  wife, 
who  served  the  Indians  through  a  long  series  of  years. 

Three  Great  Missionaries.  Early  realizing  the 
need  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  language  of  the  Indian, 
the  three  missionaries,  Pond,  Riggs  and  Williamson — 
gave  them  grammar,  dictionary,  and  then  the  entire 
Bible  in  their  own  tongue.  It  was  a  monumental 
achievement  and  opened  to  the  Dakotas  an  entrance  to 
the  Christian  life. 

In  1 85 1  a  new  treaty  was  made  between  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  Dakotas.  The  Indians  had  already 
surrendered  to  the  white  man  all  their  territory  east 
of  the  Mississippi  River.  As  the  tide  of  emigration 
to  the  West  increased  the  white  men  demanded  more 
land.  The  Indians  were  forced  to  give  up  the  beau- 
tiful prairies  of  Minnesota.  At  a  stroke  of  the  Gov- 
ernment's pen  the  hunting  grounds  and  the  fertile 
iields  and  the  graves  of  their  people  were  taken  away. 


84  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

The  Dakotas  must  move  on.  They  went  to  poorer 
lands  farther  west.  Their  faithful  missionaries  went 
with  them  and  at  Yellow  Medicine  established  a  mis- 
sion where,  by  reason  of  the  temper  of  the  Indians 
smarting  under  a  sense  of  their  wrongs,  the  work  was 
discouraging  and  unfruitful. 

The  Indian  Massacre.  The  Indian  has  a  long 
memory.  He  had  been  driven  from  home,  fair  prom- 
ises were  broken,  annuities  were  withheld.  The  entire 
attitude  of  the  Dakotas  was  being  changed.  They 
were  suffering  from  hunger.  Becoming  desperate 
they  broke  into  the  government  storehouse  to  take 
their  rations  by  force.  Repulsed,  they  sought  re- 
venge in  the  Indian  way.  The  massacre  of  1862  fol- 
lowed. Nearly  a  thousand  settlers  in  various  parts 
of  the  state  were  brutally  murdered  and  millions  of 
dollars  worth  of  property  were  destroyed.  Of  course, 
the  Government  soon  quelled  the  outbreak,  taking  two 
thousand  prisoners  and  sentencing  four  hundred  to 
death.  All  but  thirty-eight  of  these,  however,  were 
reprieved  by  Lincoln. 

But  the  remarkable  providence  that  emerged 
through  the  horror  of  those  days  was  the  conduct  of 
the  Christian  Indians.  They  remained  loyal  to  their 
white  neighbors.  Through  their  assistance  many  set- 
tlers escaped  uninjured.  Recently  the  people  of  Min- 
nesota attested  their  discrimination  between  good  and 
bad  Indians  by  erecting  at  Fort  Ridgely  a  monument 
"to  commemorate  the  faithfulness  of  those  Indians 
who  remained  true  to  their  white  friends  during  the 
terrible  massacre  of  1862." 

The  Indian  uprising  was  followed  by  an  extraord- 
inary spiritual  harvest.     Four  hundred  Indians  were 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS  85 

sentenced  to  the  Mankato  prison.  Dr.  Williamson, 
with  courage  and  devotion,  so  preached  the  gospel  to 
the  guilty  men  that  the  Prison  Church  was  organized, 
enrolling  in  one  day  two  hundred  men. 

At  Fort  Snelling  a  similar  work  of  grace  was  car- 
ried on  by  Dr.  Williamson's  son,  the  Rev.  John  P. 
Williamson.  More  than  a  hundred  confessed  their 
faith  in  Christ.  When,  soon  after,  they  were  removed 
to  South  Dakota  Mr.  Williamson  followed  them  there 
and  organized  the  "Fort  Thompson  Church"  with  one 
hundred  sixty-eight  members. 

In  1871  the  American  Board  withdrew  from  its  In- 
dian work;  the  mission  was  divided,  Dr.  Williamson 
and  his  son,  with  nine  native  churches,  coming  under 
the  care  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church. 

Native  Presbytery.  Since  that  date  the  work  has 
steadily  progressed.  It  is  conducted  at  six  of  the 
twelve  Sioux  agencies  and  is  embodied  in  a  native 
presbytery  of  thirty-nine  churches  with  about  fifteen 
hundred  members.  The  Rev.  John  P.Williamson,  D.D., 
who,  after  his  father  had  rested  from  his  labors,  took 
entire  charge  of  the  large  and  growing  work,  was 
called  to  his  reward  in  1918.  During  a  long  life  of 
more  than  eighty  years  he  had  wholly  devoted  himself 
to  his  people  and  abundantly  earned  the  title  so  lov- 
ingly given  him  of  "The  Bishop  of  Dakota  Presby- 
tery." 

The  evidence  that  the  Dakotas  thus  rescued  from 
barbarism  and  savagery  are  Christians  indeed  is  in 
their  missionary  life.  In  1876  the  organized  a  native 
missionary  society  "to  hunt  their  heathen  brothers." 
Its  anual   income,  averaging  more   than   a   dollar   a 


86  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

member,  is  devoted  to  sending  missionaries  to  other 
tribes.  The  Dakota  churches  far  surpass  most  of  the 
American  churches  in  giving  more  for  benevolences 
than  for  their  own  support,  in  some  cases  twice  as 
much.  The  religious  history  of  the  Sioux  attests  strik- 
ingly the  power  of  the  gospel  over  the  lives— even  the 
imbruted  lives — of  men. 

At  this  writing  (1919)  there  are  thirty-five  churches 
among  the  Dakotas,  constituting  an  entire  Indian 
Presbytery.  One  of  the  potent  factors  in  the  uplift 
of  this  large  tribe  has  been  the  Good  Will  Boarding 
and  Industrial  School  near  the  line  between  North  and 
South  Dakota.  Established  by  Dr.  Riggs  in  1871,  it 
grew  slowly  at  first,  but  in  1883,  when  the  Woman's 
Board  took  charge  of  the  work,  signs  of  rapid  advance 
began  to  appear.  Hundreds  of  girls  have  been  trained 
in  domestic  industries  and  hundreds  of  boys  in  farm- 
ing, carpentry  and  the  like.  Eight  churches  surround 
the  school.  The  people  hold  land  in  severalty  and  are 
citizens  of  the  United  States.  In  1912  the  Govern- 
ment put  in  an  excellent  school — making  that  branch 
of  missionary  service  unnecessary.  It  is  the  policy  of 
the  Woman's  Board  everywhere  to  retire  from  school 
work  wherever  and  whenever  the  Government  is  pre- 
pared to  do  that  service.  The  Good  Will  School  has, 
therefore,  been  closed.  The  fruit  of  it,  however, 
abides.  The  home  missionary  societies  of  the  Indian 
Presbytery  contribute  annually  for  Indian  work  not 
less  than  four  thousand  dollars. 

The  Five  Tribes  in  the  Indian  Territory.  Chris- 
tianity has  had  a  signal  triumph  in  the  missions  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  among  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes 
in  the  Indian  Territory,  namely  ,the  Choctaws,  Chero- 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS  87 

kees,  Chickasaws,  Seminoles,  and  Creeks.  These,  by 
what  has  so  often  been  the  shameful  land-grabbing 
policy  of  our  Government,  were  nearly  a  century  ago 
driven  from  their  beautiful  homes  in  the  Carolinas, 
Florida  and  Georgia.  To  them  was  assigned  what 
until  recently  was  called  the  Indian  Territory.  If  its 
wealth  in  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  its  mineral  treas- 
ures had  been  suspected  by  the  Government  it  is  most 
probable  the  Indians  would  have  been  forced  farther 
west  to  the  arid  plains  toward  the  Rockies.  Unwit- 
tingly they  were  given  a  rich  heritage.  Many  of  them 
have  become  prosperous  and  even  wealthy. 

Portions  of  the  great  tract  of  land  were  later  ceded 
back  to  the  Governoment  and  opened  to  white  settlers. 
Thus  ensued  a  mixed  population  of  Indians,  Negroes 
and  whites.  The  latter  were  often  renters  on  the  lands 
of  the  Indians,  who  thus  were  enabled  to  live  in  idle- 
ness, very  agreeable  to  the  Indian  character  but  not 
promotive  of  his  progress. 

Into  this  motley  population  missions  were  intro- 
duced at  an  early  date.  The  missionaries  came  to  a 
people,  many  of  whom  had  heard  the  gospel  from 
missionaries  in  their  old  homes  and  who  had  already 
been  reclaimed  from  many  of  their  superstitions  and 
much  of  their  ignorance.  Schools  were  opened  for 
their  children  and  large  sums  of  money  were  set  apart 
for  their  support.  The  Honorable  W.  A.  Jones,  a 
Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  wrote : 

"It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  long  before  the  ad- 
joining states  were  states  the  Cherokees  had  adopted  a 
constitution  making  officials  elective,  abolishing  po- 
lygamy and,  recognizing  the  Christian  religion,  and 
had  passed  strict  temperance  laws." 


88  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

To  people  thus  fairly  advanced  on  the  road  to  civili- 
zation Presbyterian  missionaries  were  sent  seventy- 
five  years  ago.  The  fruits  of  their  toil  have  steadily 
matured  and  are  thus  summed  up  by  the  Rev.  George 
F.  McAfee,  D.D.,  formerly  Superintendent  of  Schools 
for  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Home  Missions : 

Testimony  of  George  F.  McAfee.  "As  time  went 
on,  one  station  after  another  was  successfully  opened, 
one  victory  after  another  over  prejudice  and  opposi- 
tion was  gained,  one  missionary  after  another  sealed 
his  devotion  to  his  people  with  his  life,  until  the  whole 
land  was  opened  to  the  gospel.  Many  converts  were 
made,  a  number  of  churches  were  organized,  numer- 
ous schools  were  thronged  with  children  and  youth, 
and  rapid  progress  toward  Christianity  and  civilization 
was  realized. 

"Then  suddenly  the  whole  land  was  rent  and  torn 
by  the  horrors  of  Civil  War.  Mission  stations  were 
abandoned,  the  people  divided  between  North  and 
South,  churches,  schoolhouses  and  missionary  homes 
were  burned  and  the  missionaries  obliged  to  flee,  and 
practically  the  whole  work  came  to  naught. 

"After  the  close  of  the  war,  when  passions  had 
cooled,  the  Indians  began  to  clamor  for  missions  again. 
The  work  was  resumed,  although  under  the  most  un- 
favorable conditions.  Indian  Territory  had  become  a 
refuge  for  all  sorts  of  criminals  and  the  youth  were 
subjected  to  all  manner  of  evil  influences.  Yet  faith- 
ful missionary  preachers  and  teachers  went  forward 
with  the  work  until  God  crowned  their  efforts  with 
marvellous  success." 

At  the  close  of  the  War  the  work  among  the  Chicka- 
saws   was   taken   up   by   the    Southern   Presbyterian 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS  89 

Church.  At  an  early  date  the  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions of  the  Northern  Church  began  to  build  again  its 
shattered  work  among  the  other  four  tribes.  The  re- 
covery has  been  rapid.  Churches  have  been  organized, 
chapels  and  schoolhouses  built  and  the  training  in  civ- 
ilized life  which  had  been  arrested  by  the  Civl  War  was 
hopefully  resumed. 

The  school  work  established  by  the  Presbyterian 
Board  has  been  taken  over  in  some  cases  by  the  Gov- 
ernment and  in  others  by  the  Indians  who  have  been 
quick  to  claim  the  direction  and  development  of  their 
educational  system.  This  is  specially  true  of  the 
Cherokees — the  largest  and  the  most  advanced  of  the 
five  tribes. 

Dwight  School.  The  Woman's  Board  has  long 
conducted  schools  among  the  Cherokees  and  Creeks. 
Among  the  former  the  most  notable  is  that  at  Dwight, 
first  established  on  the  Arkansas  River  and  later 
moved  west  to  its  present  location  at  Marble  City, 
Oklahoma.  It  was  begun  in  1820  by  the  Rev.  Cephas 
Washburn.  It  was  under  the  care  of  the  American 
Board.  As  a  boarding  and  industrial  school  it  pros- 
pered until  i860,  when  on  account  of  the  Civil  War 
it  was  closed  and  so  remained  until  1867  when  Dr. 
Timothy  Hill  visited  the  spot.  He  found  nothing  but 
ruins.  So  impressed  was  he  by  the  loss  of  what  had 
once  been  a  prosperous  work,  that  he  appealed  to  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions  that  it  might  be  revived. 
Not,  however,  till  1886  was  the  school  reopened  in  a 
large,  well-equipped  building.  For  ten  years  the  work 
prospered.  Hundreds  of  Cherokee  girls  were  brought 
to  Christ  and  trained  in  domestic  arts.  Under  the  fos- 
tering care  of  the  Woman's  Board  "Old  Dwight"  is  a 


90  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

mighty  power  in  the  salvation  and  education  of  the 
Cherokees.  As  the  years  have  gone  on  additional  in- 
dustrial departments  have  been  added  for  both  boys 
and  girls.  The  missionary  agencies  thus  at  work  in 
this  tribe  have  given  it  one  of  the  leading  places  among 
all  our  Indian  tribes. 

Nuyaka  School.  The  Creeks  were  moved  from 
Alabama  and  Georgia  to  the  Indian  Territory  in  1837 
and  given  reservation  west  of  the  Cherokees.  Mis- 
sionaries among  them  date  back  to  1842,  when  the 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions  opened  a  mission  and  a 
school.  Here,  too,  the  Civil  War  broke  up  the  work. 
In  1882,  the  mission  having  again  been  opened,  it  was 
transferred  to  the  Board  of  Home  Missions.  Over- 
tures now  came  from  many  sources  asking  for  schools. 
Among  the  first  to  be  taken  up  was  Nuyaka.  In  1883 
the  Woman's  Executive  Committee  undertook  the 
work.  The  nation  cooperated  liberally  with  the  Com- 
mittee in  its  support.  A  year  later  missionaries  were 
located  at  Red  Fork  and  Tulsa. 

Henry  Kendall  College.  One  of  the  finest  results 
of  the  mission  schools  in  the  territory  is  Henry  Ken- 
dall College,  named  after  the  veteran  Secretary  of 
the  Board.  It  is  on  the  Creek  Reservation  and  began 
at  Muskogee  in  1882  as  a  little  day  school  for  Indian 
girls  in  the  home  of  the  missionary  in  the  village,  the 
Rev.  Thomas  A.  Sanson.  Beginning  in  the  parsonage, 
it  soon  outgrew  those  limited  quarters.  It  secured  a 
commodious  building  and  became  a  boarding  school 
with  an  industrial  department  added. 

For  more  than  ten  years  it  was  conducted  by  the 
Woman's  Board  and  exclusively  for  girls.  But  the 
Indians  clamored  for  a  chance  for  their  boys;    so  a 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS  91 

boys'  department  was  added.  Still  the  Indians  were 
hungry  for  the  best  things  for  their  children.  So  in 
1894  that  which  began  in  a  mission  manse  as  a  pp- 
mary  school  blossomed  as  a  Christian  college  open  to 
both  sexes. 

In  1908  it  moved  with  larger  equipment  to  the  thriv- 
ing city  of  Tulsa  and  was  then  transferred  to  the 
Synod  of  Oklahoma.  In  its  growth  it  has  gone  beyond 
its  original  purpose  in  that  it  is  no  longer  an  Indian 
school,  but  Indians  are  admitted  to  its  advantages  on 
an  equal  footing  with  white  students.  As  is  true  of  so 
many  mission  schools,  students  usually  leave  the  col- 
lege avowed  Christians,  differing  in  this  from  the 
results  of  our  larger  institutions  of  learning. 

Among  the  names  that  should  be  noted  in  the  mis- 
sionary history  of  the  Indian  Territory  are  the  Rev. 
Cephas  Washburn,  the  Rev.  S.  A.  Worcester,  D.D., 
the  Rev.  W.  S.  Robertson,  the  Rev.  A.  Grant  Evans, 
D.D.,  the  Rev.  W.  R.  King,  D.D.,  and  the  Rev.  F.  W. 
Hawley,  D.D.  It  was  because  of  the  faith  and  sacrifice 
of  these  men  and  their  devoted  wives  and  consecrated 
associates — for  whose  names  we  have  no  space  but 
which  are  in  the  book  of  life — that  the  Indians  of  that 
Territory  have  advanced  to  their  present  state  of 
Christian  civilization. 

Work  of  Charles  H.  Cook.  One-fifth  of  the  In- 
dians of  the  United  States  dwell  in  the  States  of  New 
Mexico  and  Arizona.  There  some  of  the  most  signal 
victories  of  Indian  evangelization  have  been  won.  The 
beginning  of  it  all  was  in  the  heroic  faith  of  an  humble 
pioneer  missionary,  the  Rev.  Charles  H.  Cook. 

In  1868  General  Alexander,  an  army  officer  sta- 
tioned in  Arizona,  became  so  deeply  impressed  with 


92  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

the  ignorance  and  superstitions  of  the  Pimas,  and 
with  their  kindly  and  teachable  dispositions,  that  in  an 
article  to  the  New  York  Evangelist  he  appealed  that 
a  missionary  might  be  given  to  them.  The  article  fell 
under  the  eye  of  Mr.  Cook,  at  that  time  engaged  in 
city  mission  work  in  Chicago.  He  consulted  Washing- 
ton officials,  only  to  be  told  that  there  was  a  state  of 
unrest  among  the  Pimas  and  that  a  mission  to  them 
would  be  an  unprofitable  if  not  an  unsafe  undertaking. 

But  the  desperate  need  of  those  desert  people  so 
wrought  upon  him  that  he  determined  to  venture  all 
for  their  salvation.  Without  funds  and  with  no 
church  backing,  convinced,  as  he  said,  that  the 
God  who  provided  for  George  Mueller's  orphans  was 
able  also  to  provide  for  him,  he  left  Chicago  on  Sep- 
tember first,  1870,  and  set  his  face  toward  Arizona. 
The  story  of  his  four  months'  journey  by  oxcart 
across  the  plains  and  the  mountains  is  one  of  the  ro- 
mances of  missions.  Everywhere  God  raised  up 
friends  for  him.  On  December  twenty-third  he 
reached  the  headquarters  of  the  Pimas  at  Sacaton,  the 
little  Indian  village  which  was  to  be  his  headquarters 
for  nearly  half  a  century. 

He  began  as  a  teacher  in  the  government  school, 
then  for  a  while  he  supported  himself  as  a  trader,  all 
the  time  diligently  studying  the  Pima  langauge  that 
he  might  find  an  entrance  for  the  gospel.  In  1881  he 
was  induced  by  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson,  who  found  the 
lone  missionary  in  one  of  his  many  tours,  to  place  his 
work  under  the  care  of  the  Presbyterian  Board. 

Up  to  this  time  there  had  been  no  fruit  to  his  labors. 
He  had,  however,  won  the  confidence  and  in  some 
cases  the  affection  of  the  Indians.    At  last  the  harvest 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS  93 

began  to  ripen.  In  1889  he  organized  the  First  Pres- 
byterian Church  of  Sacaton  with  sixteen  members. 
For  many  years  he  and  his  noble  wife  toiled  on,  undis- 
couraged  by  the  slowness  of  results,  undismayed  by 
opposition  of  enemies  of  missions  and  by  the  indiffer- 
ence of  a  Government  which  saw  the  Indians'  lands 
invaded  and  their  fields  made  desert  by  the  diversion 
of  the  water  in  the  interest  of  unscrupulous  settlers. 
They  appealed  to  the  Government  to  protect  the  rights 
of  their  people ;  they  appealed  to  the  Church  to  send 
helpers  to  strengthen  the  work  which  was  showing 
signs  of  such  marked  encouragement. 

At  last  their  prayers  were  answered.  The  Govern- 
ment installed  a  water  system  which,  though  long  de- 
layed and  never  adequate,  protected  the  Indians  from 
starvation  and  the  Church  saw  her  opportunity  and 
sent  in  missionaries  and  teachers  to  uphold  the  hands 
of  the  lonely  workers. 

Not  waiting  for  the  increase  of  the  number  of  mis- 
sionaries. Dr.  Cook  became  a  teacher  of  theology  and 
trained  Indian  young  men  of  piety  and  parts  to  help 
him  carry  the  work  which  was  too  much  for  one  man's 
shoulders.  Several  of  these  native  missionaries  were 
soon  added  to  the  force. 

Aware  of  the  need  of  industrial  training  for  Indians 
who  must  get  their  living  out  of  their  land,  Dr.  Cook 
secured  the  opening  of  an  industrial  training  school 
for  Pima  and  Papago  boys  and  girls  at  Tucson.  It 
was  begun  in  1886.  It  has  steadily  grown  in  equip- 
ment and  influence,  and  is  conducted  by  the  Woman's 
Board.  So  thorough  have  been  its  plans  and  its  work, 
covering  all  that  Pima  and  Papago  boys  and  girls 
should  know  and  do,  as  to  have  high  praise  from  the 


94  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs.  The  girls  are  taught 
the  various  domestic  arts.  The  boys  learn  the  methods 
of  cultivating  the  land,  and  in  addition  for  a  number 
of  years  were  the  street  cleaning  department  of  the 
City  of  Tucson,  the  income  for  their  labors  helping 
materially  the  income  of  the  school. 

Statistics.  For  nearly  fifty  years  this  modern 
apostle  to  the  Indians — pursued  the  dream  which  had 
become  the  consuming  passion  of  his  life,  to  save  the 
Pimas,  wards  of  a  Government  they  had  never  be- 
trayed. And  he  had  his  reward.  There  are  in  1919 
twelve  Indian  churches  on  the  reservation,  the  one  at 
Sacaton  having  a  membership  of  three  hundred 
eighty-eight.  In  three  of  the  churches  now  supplied 
by  native  ministers,  graduates  of  Dr.  Cook's  theo- 
logical seminary,  there  are  eight  hundred  seventy-nine 
members.  Looking  beyond  the  term  of  his  own  life, 
he  inspired  the  founding  of  a  theological  school  which 
in  his  honor  has  been  named  "The  Charles  H.  Cook 
Training  School,"  now  located  at  Phoenix.  In  1917 
he  entered  into  rest,  to  be  held  in  grateful  memory  by 
the  patient,  gentle,  faithful  tribe  for  whose  salvation 
he  gave  a  long  and  glorious  life. 

This  record  would  not  be  complete  if  we  failed  to 
recognize  the  fact  that  the  influence  of  Dr.  Cook's 
labors  extended  to  surrounding  tribes,  specially  to  the 
Maricopas  and  the  Papagos  in  scattered  villages  in 
southern  Arizona.  The  latter  number  about  four 
thousand  wandering  Indian  Arabs  who  had  been 
wholly  uncared  for  until  1901  when  the  Rev.  F.  S. 
Herndon  began  work  among  them,  with  prompt  and 
blessed  results. 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS  95 

Work  among  the  Pueblo  Indans  of  New  Mexico  was 
undertaken  in  1854  by  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society 
who  sent  a  missionary  to  the  Lagunas.  The  coming 
of  Civil  War  made  it  necessary  to  abandon  the  work. 
But  in  1876  the  pathetic  condition  of  those  cliff  dwell- 
ers so  appealed  to  the  Home  Board  that  it  sent  the 
Rev.  John  Menaul  and  wife  to  labor — the  one  as  min- 
ister and  physician,  and  the  other  as  teacher.  In  1890 
he  removed  to  Albuquerque  to  engage  in  the  publica- 
tion of  special  literature,  when  the  Rev.  John  M. 
Shields,  M.D.,  took  his  place  as  missionary  at  La- 
guna.  The  Woman's  Board  also  established  day 
schools  for  the  Zuni  Pueblos. 

In  1880  the  Woman's  Board  founded  an  industrial 
boarding  school  at  Albuquerque — free  to  all  the  pu- 
eblos. Professor  W.  D.  Bryan,  with  a  strong  corps  of 
teachers,  opened  in  buildings  with  a  capacity  for  one 
hundred  and  fifty  pupils.  It  was  filled  almost  from  the 
first.  As  in  other  schools  established  by  the  Woman's 
Board  mechanical  and  domestic  arts  had  prominent 
place  with  the  ordinary  English  branches.  Into  this 
school  came  pupils  from  many  tribes  in  New  Mexico 
and  Arizona. 

Navajos.  The  Navajos  in  Arizona  and  New 
Mexico  are  the  largest  and  among  the  most  virile  and 
capable  of  our  Indian  tribes.  One-half  of  their  thirty 
thousand  people  are  the  special  charge  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church.  Missions  among  them  date  back  to 
the  beginning  of  this  century.  Until  within  the  last 
decade  they  might  truly  have  said  "No  man  careth  for 
our  souls."  Now,  however,  several  denominations 
have  entered  the  open  door.  In  1901  a  mission  was 
begun  at  Ganado — the  evangelistic  and  the  medical 


96  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

work  under  care  of  the  Home  Board,  and  educational 
work  conducted  by  the  Woman's  Board.  In  1902  the 
entire  plant  at  Jewett,  New  Mexico,  begun  by  the 
Methodist  Church  in  1895 — afterward  carried  on  in 
an  enlarged  way  by  two  independent  New  England 
societies,  was  transferred  to  the  Home  Board.  In 
1903  the  school  and  hospital  buildings  came  into  the 
charge  of  the  Woman's  Board,  when  a  boarding  school 
for  boys  was  opened  with  medical  work  under  a  resi- 
dent physician.  Two  years  later  provision  was  made 
for  a  girls'  school.  In  191 1  owing  to  unfavorable 
physical  conditions  the  location  was  given  up  and  the 
entire  mission  moved  to  Ganado,  where  it  is  now 
flourishing  in  every  department.  It  is  called  the  Kirk- 
wood  Memorial  School,  in  honor  of  the  Rev.  Thomas 
C.  Kirkwood,  D.D.,  for  many  years  the  Synodical 
Missionary  of  Colorado. 

Other  stations  to  be  named,  where  promising  work 
is  carried  on — both  evangelistic  and  educational — are 
Fort  Defiance,  Tuba,  Shiprock,  Indian  Wells  and  Tol- 
chaco.  These  six  mission  stations  splendidly  located  are 
being  served  by  six  ordained  ministers,  besides  a  number 
of  Indian  helpers.  There  are  physicians  ministering  to 
the  health  of  the  people  and  schools  where  the  children 
are  taught.  The  government  schools  are  well  appoint- 
ed and  doing  an  increasingly  good  work.  The  baneful 
influence  of  the  medicine  men  is  rapidly  waning  and 
the  medical  missionaries  treating  thousands  of  cases 
annually  have  ready  entrance  to  the  Indian  homes. 

Bible  Translation.  The  most  recent  missionary 
achievement  for  that  large  tribe  is  the  translation  of 
the  Scriptures  into  the  Navajo  tongue.  As  English 
is  the  language  used  exclusively  in  the  instruction  in 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS  97 

government  schools,  there  was  a  question  whether  this 
Navajo  translation  could  be  used  by  the  missionaries 
in  their  classes  of  Protestant  pupils.  The  Commis- 
sioner of  Indian  Affairs  has,  however,  given  permis- 
sion for  the  use  of  this  translation  in  teaching  the 
government  school  pupils  assigned  to  Protestant  in- 
struction outside  of  school  hours,  with  the  understand- 
ing that  the  English  and  Navajo  versions  will  be  used 
side  by  side.  This  concession  is,  of  course,  very  grati- 
fying to  the  missionaries  on  this  field.  In  a  tribe 
who  have  never  been  instructed  in  Christian  truth, 
who  are  more  than  nine-tenths  illiterate,  and  who  speak 
only  the  Indian  tongue,  to  instruct  hundreds  of  their 
children  in  Bible  is  a  most  difficult  task. 

The  Government's  Indian  Department,  realizing  the 
latent  capacity  of  this  tribe,  has  given  it  special  atten- 
tion. Health  considerations  and  the  suppression  of 
the  liquor  traffic  have  been  given  great  prominence. 
Stock  raising  and  the  promotion  of  industry  have 
been  developed  and  the  number  of  acres  farmed  by 
Indians  greatly  increased.  An  improved  vocational 
training  and  a  new  educational  system  have  been 
adopted,  a  program  now  established  throughout  the 
Indian  educational  service. 

Along  with  an  increasing  spirit  of  independence  in 
a  material  way — more  and  more  as  the  number  of  con- 
verts to  the  Christian  faith  increases — the  Indians  are 
learning  to  contribute  to  their  church  and  mission 
efforts.  It  is  a  lesson  not  easily  learned  by  a  people 
coming  out  of  desolate  paganism  in  which  generosity 
and  altruistic  motives  have  never  had  place. 

Pacific  Coast  Indians.  The  Indians  of  the  Pacific 
Coast  have  been  among  the  most  neglected.    A  better 


98  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

day  is  dawning  for  them  now.  Among  the  Puyallups 
on  Puget  Sound  a  mission  was  estabUshed  by  the  Pres- 
byterian Board  thirty  years  ago.  They  have  a  church 
with  one  hundred  and  fifty  members.  Among  the 
Hoopas,  long  suffering  many  wrongs  inflicted  by  gov- 
ernment agents  and  wholly  without  religious  care,  a 
mission  was  established  by  the  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions in  1901,  and  though  they  have  not  given  up  all 
their  old  superstitions  they  are  peacable,  law-abiding 
and  many  of  them  are  professing  Christians.  The 
Digger  Indians  of  California,  said  to  be  the  lowest 
physical  type  of  all  American  Indians  and  the  most 
miserable  in  the  lives  they  lead,  received  their  first 
missionary  in  1904  in  the  person  of  a  devoted  woman 
sent  out  by  the  Woman's  Board. 

The  Woman's  Board  also  conducts  schools  at  North 
Fork,  California,  where  in  191 7  hospital  rooms  were 
added  to  the  new  mission  building  for  the  care  of  the 
sick;  at  Wolf  Point  Mission,  under  direction  of  Mrs. 
Cynthia  D.  King,  where  there  is  an  industrial  home, 
a  self-supporting  boarding  department  and  a  ten-room 
addition  built  for  boys ;  and  the  most  westerly  station 
at  Neah  Bay,  Washington,  opened  for  the  Makah 
Indians  in  1899  where  two  devoted  women  are  doing 
hopeful  work,  and  the  Shasta  Indians,  in  California, 
where  the  Woman's  Board  began  work  in  1901.  Even 
among  them  a  few  trophies  of  the  power  of  the  gospel 
have  been  gathered.  Other  tribes  that  should  be 
named  are  the  Umatillas  in  northern  Oregon,  where 
the  Rev.  James  M.  Cornelison  has  given  many  years 
of  faithful  service;  the  Spokanes,  neighbors  of  the 
Nez  Perces,  a  tribe  religiously  inclined  but  long  neg- 
lected, and  the  Puyallups  on  Puget  Sound,  to  whom 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS  99 

the  Home  Board  sent  missionaries  more  than  thirty 
years  ago.  Of  these  wronged  and  neglected  tribes  Dr. 
Thos.  C.  Moffett  writes : 

"The  principal  cause  of  the  appallingly  great  and 
rapid  decrease  in  the  Indians  of  California  is  not  the 
number  directly  slain  by  the  whites,  nor  the  number 
directly  killed  by  whiskey  and  disease,  but  a  much 
more  subtle  and  dreadful  thing.  It  is  the  gradual,  but 
progressive,  and  resistless  confiscation  of  their  lands 
and  homes  in  consequence  of  which  they  are  forced  to 
seek  refuge  in  remote  and  barren  localities,  often  far 
from  water,  usually  with  an  impoverished  supply  of 
food,  and  not  infrequently  in  places  where  the  winter 
is  too  severe  for  their  enfeebled  constitutions." 

The  advance  Indian  work  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  thus  briefly  sketched  was  begun  in  1905  in  the 
appointment  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  C.  Moffett,  D.D.,  as 
Indian  representative  and  the  organization  in  1907  of 
an  Indian  Department  with  Dr.  Moffett  in  charge. 

The  work  embraces  two  distinct  features.  The 
prime  aim  of  the  Board  is,  of  course,  to  supply  the 
Indian  tribes  with  the  message  and  the  helps,  indi- 
vidual and  tribal,  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  In  view, 
however,  of  the  fact  that  the  success  of  the  work  de- 
pends in  large  measure  on  the  attitude  and  help  of  the 
national  Government,  one  of  the  duties  of  the  Depart- 
ment has  been  to  aid  in  securing  such  legislation  and 
such  governmental  care  of  the  Indians  as  would  make 
missionary  work  effective.  In  this  last  purpose  the 
Board  has  had  a  full  measure  of  cooperation  on  the 
part  of  the  Indian  Department  of  the  Government. 
Since  the  administration  of  General  Grant  there  has 
been  a  steadily  increasing  interest  in  the  welfare  of 


100  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

the  aborigines  and  a  more  intelligent  sense  of  govern- 
mental responsibility  for  these  wards  of  the  nation. 
The  steps  taken  in  these  directions  may  be  summar- 
ized as  follows : 

Forward  Steps.  I,  The  allotting  of  Indian  lands 
in  severalty,  so  that  each  family  would  have  an  oppor- 
tunity and  an  incentive  to  build  up  family  life  and  be 
held  to  social  and  civic  responsibility  the  same  as  that 
of  the  white  neighbors. 

II.  The  gradual  abolishing  of  Indian  agencies,  the 
fruitful  source  of  many  wrongs  in  the  past. 

III.  The  breaking  up  of  tribal  relations  and  heathen 
customs. 

These  aims  once  accomplished  would  spell  out  a  new 
epoch  for  the  race.  And  in  these  aims  the  Presby- 
terian Church  with  other  communions  has  been  a 
strong  cooperator  with  all  who  in  governmental  work 
are  seeking  for  our  natives  the  largest  possible  share 
in  the  blessings  of  the  nation. 

The  Report  of  the  Board  for  1918  recorded  one 
hundred  fifty  missionaries  and  Indian  helpers  working 
among  forty-five  tribal  divisions  with  sixty-six 
churches  being  iri  two  Indian  presbyteries,  with  two 
hospitals,  three  Bible  Training  Schools  and  a  Depart- 
ment of  specialized  Indian  service.  The  work  is  con- 
ducted in  twenty  states,  the  largest  block  being  in  what 
is  now  the  State  of  Oklahoma  and  comprising  119,000 
people. 

During  the  past  decade  the  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions has  cooperated  strongly  with  the  Home  Missions 
Council  in  its  Indian  work,  which  is  an  important  part 
of  its  enterprise.  This  Council,  which  represents 
nearly  all  the  home  mission  forces  of  the  Protestant 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS  loi 

Church  and  has  a  constituency  of  thirty-three  home 
mission  organizations  alHed  with  twenty-one  com- 
munions, has  employed  on  part  time  the  Superintend- 
ent of  the  Presbyterian  Indian  work — the  Rev. 
Thomas  C.  Moffett,  D.D.  He  has  performed  this 
service  from  New  York  and  Washington  with  fre- 
quent trips  to  Indian  conferences  and  mission  fields. 
His  labors  have  been  varied  and  constructive,  the  re- 
lations with  the  Office  of  Indian  Afifairs  in  presenting 
the  interests  of  the  constituent  Boards  having  been 
particularly  effective. 

Cooperation.  The  spirit  of  comity  and  cooperation 
in  the  Indian  field  has  been  notably  increased  during 
recent  years.  In  fact  it  may  be  stated  that  the  mission 
work  for  the  native  American  race  has  been  in  a  re- 
markable way  the  means  of  drawing  the  divided  Prot- 
estant organizations  into  mutual  understanding  and  to 
harmonious  and  united  effort.  The  Boards  in  the 
Home  Missions  Council  have  practically  agreed  to  re- 
spect the  possession  of  Indian  mission  fields  and  not 
to  enter  any  field  in  which  any  Board  is  already  at 
work ;  also  to  refer  disputes  or  claims  of  disregard  of 
comity  to  the  Council  or  its  Indian  Committee.  The 
neglected  and  partially  evangelized  tribes  of  Indians 
have  been  commended  to  the  attention  of  the  denomi- 
nations best  prepared  to  supply  the  need  in  each  case, 
and  larger  efficiency  and  a  statesmanlike  handling  of 
this  problem  have  been  accomplished. 

A  tabulation  has  been  made  and  published  of  all 
the  denominational  missions  by  tribes,  and  of  the  lo- 
cation and  population  of  the  neglected  tribes  and  com- 
munities of  Indians  throughout  the  United  States. 


102  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

The  policy  of  the  permanent  establishment  of  the 
work  is  essential.  It  is  stated  that  out  of  the  hundreds 
of  missions  which  have  grown  from  that  started  under 
Bishop  Whipple  in  1852  not  one,  from  Minnesota  to 
Alaska,  has  been  given  up  or  left  without  a  mission- 
ary. 

Statistics.  In  the  United  States,  exclusive  of 
Alaska,  323,403  persons  are  classed  as  Indians;  of 
these  296,000  are  under  the  general  supervision  of  the 
Federal  Indian  Service.  In  1913  it  was  learned  that 
the  Government  was  taking  a  hand  in  gathering  statis- 
tics of  the  religious  affiliations  of  the  Indians,  and 
from  superintendents  on  the  reservations  and  in 
charge  of  government  schools  reports  were  received 
from  177,401  Indians.  Of  this  number  69,529  have 
professed  Christianity.  This  is  thirty-nine  per  cent, 
of  the  total  heard  from.  A  still  larger  per  cent,  of 
the  other  half  of  the  Indian  population,  concerning 
whom  no  statistics  were  gathered,  is  doubtless  non- 
Christian,  for  these  would  include  the  more  primitive 
tribes.  What  more  effective  argument  could  be  pre- 
sented to  the  Church  for  an  advance  in  missions  to  the 
American  Indians  than  the  statement  of  the  Govern- 
ment showing  that  sixty-one  per  cent,  of  the  Indians 
enumerated  are  still  out  of  the  pale  of  the  Christian 
Church?  Nothing  is  more  urgent  than  the  renewed 
calling  attention  to  the  list  of  some  forty-six  thousand 
Indians  of  seventy-eight  tribal  divisions  still  in  need 
of  the  establishment  of  Christian  missions  and  the 
providing  of  the  ordinances  of  the  Church  for  these 
long  neglected  descendants  of  the  native  Americans. 
With  one-half  of  the  Indians  of  the  United  States  and 
Alaska  still  to  be  classified  as  non-Christian,  and  with 


THE  AMERICAN  INDIANS  103 

this  considerable  number  of  neglected  souls  who  are 
without  shepherds,  the  evangelical  Churches  have  a 
task  in  the  homeland  which  can  claim  primacy  of  obli- 
gation and  responsibility.  How  can  we  allow  the 
years  to  pass  without  carrying  the  gospel  to  these  neg- 
lected Red  men?  Neither  the  men  nor  the  money  to 
reach  these  Indians  will  be  lacking  if  the  Churches  in 
united  effort  will  set  themselves  to  the  accomplishment 
of  the  task  without  further  delay. 

The  highest  tribute  should  be  paid  to  the  devoted 
and  self-sacrificing  service  of  the  missionaries  and 
teachers  on  the  field  who  are  giving  themselves  in 
places  of  lowly  service  and  far  from  the  marts  of 
trade  and  from  many  social  privileges  to  these  most 
isolated  fields  of  American  home  mission  effort. 


VI 

FROM   THE   MISSISSIPPI   TO   THE   YUKON 
Across  the:  Contine:nt 

AMERICAN  Home  Mission  Society.  With  the 
division  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  into  Old 
f  and  New  School  in  183^,  we  come  to  a  new  era 

in  the  home  mission  work.  In  1826,  to  meet  the  ever- 
increasing  home  mission  demand,  the  American  Home 
Mission  Society  had  been  formed.  Its  directors  were 
composed  of  Presbyterians,  Congregationalists  and 
Dutch  Reformed  ministers  and  laymen.  It  found  its 
first  field  of  operations  in  New  England,  and  then 
with  the  westward  migration  entered  New  York  State. 
The  Presbyterian  churches  and  ministry  in  that  field 
gave  their  adherence  largely  to  this  Society,  soliciting 
funds  for  its  treasury. 

The  Board  of  Home  Missions  continued  its  connec- 
tion with  the  Old  School  branch.  Its  corporate  name 
was  changed  in  1857  to  "The  Trustees  of  the  Board 
of  Home  Missions  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica." 

From  1840  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  of  the  country 
developed  rapidly.  Though  the  Church  maintained  its 
unity  till  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  the  years 
immediately  preceding  were  times  of  acrimonious  de- 
bate, of  suspicion  and  alienation  between  the  churches 

104 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  105 

North  and  South.  The  effect  on  the  progress  of  the 
Church  was  to  magnify  church  courts  and  for  the 
time  to  hinder  evangeHstic  movements. 

Organization  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
United  States.  In  1861  the  southern  element  organ- 
ized an  Assembly  under  title  of  "The  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  Confederate  States  of  America."  At 
the  close  of  the  War  this  title  was  changed  to  the  one 
still  in  use — "The  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States." 

Reunion.  No  sooner  had  the  War  made  separation 
between  northern  and  southern  Presbyterians  complete 
than  a  strong  desire  for  union  between  the  sundered 
branches  in  the  North  developed.  The  first  definite 
steps  were  taken  by  the  appointment  of  a  joint  com- 
mittee in  St.  Louis,  where  both  Assemblies  were  then 
in  session.  In  1869  the  formal  union  took  place  in 
Pittsburgh,  where  both  Assemblies  had  agreed  to  meet 
for  this  purpose.  The  year  following  this  memorable 
occasion  witnessed  the  consolidation  of  the  Boards  of 
the  two  Assemblies.  The  Home  Mission  Society  and 
the  Board  of  Home  Missions  were  united,  with  head- 
quarters in  New  York. 

The  times  of  division,  conflict  and  adjustment  hav- 
ing passed,  the  united  Church  entered  on  a  new  mis- 
sionary era — both  home  and  foreign.  Theological  and 
ecclesiastical  questions  which  had  largely  absorbed  at- 
tention for  a  generation  were  less  regarded.  The  re- 
ligious needs  of  the  world  at  home  and  abroad  loomed 
large  and  commanding.  The  result  was  a  marked  re- 
vival of  practical  Christianity.  It  found  expression  in 
new  organizations  and  in  the  new  spirit  with  which 
approved  organizations  were  pushed.    There  was  not 


io6  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

more  missionary  enthusiasm  than  in  the  early  part 
of  the  century  when  the  great  West  was  swinging  its 
alluring  gates.  But  to  the  enthusiasm  was  added  a 
capacity  unknown  before. 

Drs.  Kendall  and  Dickson.  The  Board  of  Home 
Missions,  which  since  the  beginning  of  the  century 
had  been  the  pioneer  missionary  organization  of  the 
country,  put  forth  new  power.  Dr.  Henry  Kendall, 
who  had  been  Secretary  of  the  United  States  branch 
before  the  Reunion,  was  made  Secretary  of  the  United 
Board.  Dr.  Cyrus  Dickson,  pastor  of  a  New  School 
church,  was  associated  with  him.  Dr.  Kendall  was  the 
statesman,  Dr.  Dickson  was  the  orator.  Together  they 
carried  on  a  great  campaign.  New  communities  (now 
largely  across  the  Mississippi)  were  sharply  followed. 
The  Presbyterian  missionary  was  promptly  on  the 
ground  to  preach  the  gospel  and  establish  Christian  in- 
stitutes. 

Westward  March.  The  two  decades  following  the 
Reunion  witnessed  such  a  westward  march  of  popula- 
tions as  this  country  had  not  seen  before  and  has  not 
since.  New  states  beyond  the  Missouri  River  put 
forth  commercial  and  political  power.  New  towns 
and  cities  everywhere  flecked  the  prairies  or  gathered 
under  the  shadows  of  mountains. 

And  with  this  remarkable  development  the  Christian 
Church  kept  good  pace  with  the  national  growth. 
Thus,  in  1869  nine  young  men  from  Princeton  conse- 
crated themselves  to  home  missions  and  in  a  body 
moved  to  Kansas  prairies.  They  are  known  as  "The 
Kansas  Band."  Out  of  their  labors  sprang  the  great 
Synod  of  Kansas.  The  man  who  was  the  guide  and 
bishop  of  these  young  men  and  of  a  hundred  others 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  107 

was  the  Rev.  Timothy  Hill,  D.D.,  a  pioneer  and  mis- 
sionary superintendent  of  rare  tact,  devotion  and 
power.  Nearly  three  hundred  churches  in  Kansas  and 
Oklahoma,  organized  directly  or  indirectly  by  him,  are 
his  fitting  monument. 

He  was  one  of  many.  Men  like  Henry  Little  of 
Indiana,  Daniel  Baker  of  Texas,  A.  T.  Norton  of  Illi- 
nois, William  W.  McNair,  B.  G.  Riley  and  Stuart 
Mitchell  of  Wisconsin  and  David  C.  Lyon  of  Minne- 
sota laid  foundations  on  which  generations  to  come 
will  build  the  strength  and  glory  of  our  Church. 

A  few  decades  later,  by  the  foresight  and  energy 
and  missionary  enthusiasm  of  Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson 
and  others  like  him,  the  entire  West  from  the  Missis- 
sippi to  the  Pacific  was  staked  out  in  a  comprehensive 
missionary  plan.  In  the  generation  between  1850  and 
1880  thousands  of  churches  were  organized  between 
the  Missouri  River  and  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Be- 
tween i860  and  1890  other  thousands  were  founded  on 
the  Pacific  Coast. 

Reaching  the  Pacific  Coast.  The  action  of  the 
Board  in  October,  1848,  anticipates  the  campaign  of 
the  Forty-niners  on  the  discovery  of  gold  on  the  Pa- 
cific Coast, 

''Resolved,  That  Upper  California  being  now  a  por- 
tion of  our  own  country  and  the  way  being  fully  open 
for  the  introduction  of  missions  into  that  whole  terri- 
tory, the  Board  deem  it  of  great  importance  that  no 
time  be  lost  in  sending  one  or  more  missionaries  to 
that  field  and  they  hereby  instruct  their  Executive 
Committee,  as  soon  as  a  suitable  man  can  be  obtained, 
to  commission  him  for  San  Francisco  or  some  point  on 


io8  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

the  Bay  of  San  Francisco,  which  they  view  as  the 
most  important  point  on  the  Pacific  Coast  to  be  imme- 
diately occupied." 

This  was  prompt  action  and  has  had  a  glorious 
harvest.  The  very  next  year  the  Assembly  erected  "a 
new  Presbytery  in  Cahfornia  under  the  title  of  'The 
Presbytery  of  California.' " 

Thus,  the  beginnings  of  missionary  work  on  the 
Coast  came  close  on  the  heels  of  the  American  occu- 
pation. The  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  San  Fran- 
cisco was  organized  in  May,  1849.  One  of  the  six 
persons  uniting  to  form  this  first  Protestant  church 
on  the  Coast  was  Frederick  Billings,  who  has  the 
honor  of  having  founded  the  College  of  California, 
now  the  great  University  at  Berkeley. 

The  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Los  Angeles  was 
organized  under  the  name  of  "The  First  Protestant 
Society"  in  1859.  A  few  years  later  their  building  was 
taken  over  by  the  Episcopalians  and  the  Presbyterians 
gave  up  the  struggle  in  that  little  Spanish  outpost. 

In  1874  a  heroic  Scotchman,  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Eraser,  on  a  tour  of  investigation  as  synodical  mis- 
sionary wrote  to  the  Home  Board  "that  Los  Angeles 
was  one  of  the  places  which  the  Presbyterians  should 
take  and  hold  regardless  of  expense,  as  England  held 
Gibraltar."  That  was  the  beginning  of  the  rapid  ad- 
vance which  has  made  Los  Angeles  one  of  the  strong 
centers  of  Presb3rterianism. 

Somewhat  later  the  upper  Pacific  Coast  was  ex- 
plored, and  in  1868  the  Rev.  Aaron  L.  Lindsley,  D.D., 
laid  the  foundations  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Portland  and  a  little  after  introduced  Christian 
missions  to  far-off  Alaska.    The  church  in  Portland 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  109 

has  become  the  mother  of  scores  of  churches  in  Ore- 
gon. Thus,  in  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
Christianity  had  a  strong  grasp  on  the  rising  popula- 
tions of  the  Coast. 

Rapid  Growth.  Between  1870  and  1880  the  State 
of  California  increased  in  population  fifty  per  cent., 
but  the  increase  in  church  membership  was  a  hundred 
per  cent.  Between  1890  and  1906  the  population  in- 
creased twenty  per  cent.,  but  the  church  membership 
one  hundred  and  eighteen  per  cent.  In  Washington 
the  population  increased  seventy-five  per  cent. ;  the 
church  membership  three  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
per  cent.  In  Oregon  the  growth  in  population  was 
about  fifty  per  cent. ;  the  church  growth  one  hundred 
seventy  per  cent. 

Thus  we  have  touched  some  of  the  high  points  of 
that  missionary  advance  by  which  all  our  states  and 
territories  were  claimed  for  Christian  occupation.  Dr. 
Henry  Kendall  was  wont  to  say  that  nine-tenths  of 
all  our  Presbyterian  churches  had  a  missionary  origin 
and  had  been  directly  or  indirectly  founded  by  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions.  In  several  states  every 
church  had  a  missionary  origin. 

The  rapid  growth  of  the  Church  in  the  period  fol- 
lowing the  Reunion  of  1870  is  illustrated  by  these 
figures;  In  1870  there  were  reported  51  Synods,  173 
Presbyteries,  4238  ministers,  4526  churches,  446,561 
communicants. 

In  1918  there  were  reported  40  Synods,  292  Pres- 
byteries, 9902  ministers,  9928  churches,  1,631,748  com- 
municants. 

Cumberland  Union.  A  vastly  enlarged  mission 
field  came  to  the  Board  in  1906  by  a  union  of  the  Cum- 


no  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

berland  Presbyterian  Church  with  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America.  Early  in 
the  nineteenth  century  the  Presbyterian  Church,  ad- 
hering to  its  historic  standards  of  ministerial  qualifica- 
tion, was  unable  to  supply  the  demand  for  ministers 
which  resulted  from  great  revival  seasons  in  the 
South,  and  particularly  in  the  Cumberland  Valley. 
Those  who  organized  the  Cumberland  Church  decided 
that  more  men  must  be  drafted  into  the  ministry.  If 
no  thoroughly  trained  men  could  be  found  then  the 
Church  must  use  what  she  could  find. 

So,  on  the  basis  of  an  imperative  demand  for  evan- 
gelization and  the  call  of  consecrated  young  men  to 
give  themselves  to  this  work,  the  Cumberland  Church 
was  formed.  It  grew  very  rapidly.  As  the  years  went 
on  it  also  drew  nearer  to  the  parent  Church  in  its 
demand  and  equipment  for  a  higher  grade  of  minis- 
terial qualifications.  Colleges  and  theological  semi- 
naries supplied  what  in  this  matter  had  been  lacking, 
so  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  there 
seemed  no  good  reason  for  continuing  the  division. 

The:  Mormon  Fiei.d 

The  Mormon  field  is  far  too  extensive  and  insistent 
to  permit  of  indifference  on  the  part  of  the  Christian 
Church.  It  it  were  only  the  fanatical  dream  of  a  few 
visionaries  in  the  mountains  we  might  trust  to  Ameri- 
can influences  surrounding  it  to  bring  about  its  speedy 
decline.  But  when  we  consider  that  more  than  fifteen 
hundred  missionaries  are  at  work — mainly  in  Christian 
lands,  that  they  have  distributed  two  million  copies  of 
their  Bible — The  Book  of  Mormon — and  millions  of 
tracts,  the  American  Church  must  wake  to  her  duty. 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  in 

The  idea  that  polygamy  is  the  only  objection  to  Mor- 
monism,  that  if  this  were  eliminated  the  cult  would  be 
negligible,  is  viewing  the  subject  far  too  superficially. 
It  presents  and  urges — often  in  alluring  forms — a  per- 
nicious set  of  doctrines  entirely  destructive  of  the 
Christian  system.  There  is  no  space  here  to  give  any 
account  of  those  doctrines.  The  system,  beginning  in 
the  disordered  brain  of  one  man  in  New  York,  moved 
westward  with  startling  rapidity  first  to  Kirtland,  Ohio, 
then  to  Missouri,  then  to  Nauvoo,  Illinois,  again  to 
Missouri,  encountering  in  each  state  such  opposition 
that  the  hierarchy  determined  on  a  removal  beyond  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  where  their  plans 
could  mature  without  hindrance.  The  beautiful  valley 
between  the  Rockies  and  the  Sierras  was  selected. 

In  1864  Dr.  Henry  Kendall  on  his  way  to  the  Pacific 
Coast  passed  through  Salt  Lake  City.  Brigham 
Young,  little  dreaming  of  the  voice  he  would  thus  let 
loose,  asked  him  to  preach  in  the  Tabernacle.  Dr. 
Kendall  gave  a  ringing  message  of  gospel  truth  which 
still  rings  among  those  mountains.  The  following 
years  have  made  it  plain  that  the  word  of  the  Lord 
runs  swiftly. 

Christianity  was  first  introduced  into  Utah  by  the 
Rev.  Norman  McLeod  and  Dr.  John  King  Robinson, 
respectively  chaplain  and  surgeon  in  General  Connor's 
army  at  Fort  Douglas.  They  opened  in  Salt  Lake 
City  preaching  service  and  a  Sunday  school.  In  Oc- 
tober, 1866,  during  the  absence  of  Mr.  McLeod,  Dr. 
Robinson  was  assassinated  and  Mr.  McLeod,  being 
warned  by  threatening  letters,  did  not  return.  The 
work  consequently  came  to  an  abrupt  end. 


iii  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

In  the  summer  of  1867  two  young  Episcopal  clergy- 
men, Messrs.  Foote  and  Haskins,  began  services  in 
Salt  Lake  City.  Two  years  later  the  Rev.  Melancthon 
Hughes  and  the  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson  established  a 
Presbyterian  Church  at  Corinne,  a  Gentile  town  on  the 
northern  shore  of  the  great  Salt  Lake.  Though  Co- 
rinne was  a  non-Mormon  town,  the  opposition  directed 
from  Salt  Lake  City  strove  to  kill  the  work.  Encour- 
aged by  the  Home  Board  Mr.  Jackson,  a  young  mis- 
sionary, decided  on  a  bold  step.  He  would  meet  the 
enemy  at  headquarters.  He  found  in  the  Rev.  Josiah 
Welch  a  young  man  of  heroic  mould  who,  in  1 871, 
began  services  in  the  Mormon  capital.  Brigham 
Young  had  closed  against  him  every  hall.  But  Welch 
hired  a  hay  loft  over  a  livery  stable  and  went  to  work. 
On  November  twelfth,  1871,  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  was  organized  consisting  of  eleven  members. 

Salt  Lake  Collegiate  Institute.  Early  in  the  his- 
tory of  Mr.  Welch's  work  it  became  apparent  that 
something  must  be  done  for  the  education  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Salt  Lake  City.  Mormon  schools  were  not 
only  inefficient,  they  were  a  subtle  propaganda  for 
spreading  the  Mormon  doctrine.  He  induced  Mr. 
John  M.  Coyner  and  his  wife  and  daughter,  who  were 
teaching  at  Fort  Lapwai,  Idaho,  to  come  to  Salt  Lake 
City  and  undertake  the  training  of  the  children  of  the 
congregation.  This  school  was  opened  in  the  base- 
ment of  the  church  April  twelfth.  This  was  the  begin- 
ning of  Salt  Lake  Collegiate  Institute.  It  enrolled 
sixty-three  pupils  in  the  first  year  and  in  two  years 
grew  to  an  attendance  of  one  hundred  sixty-five. 

After  ten  years  of  service  Mr.  Coyner  retired  and 
Dr.  J.  T.  Millspaugh  carried  on  a  growing  work  until 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  113 

1890.  He  was  then  elected  Superintendent  of  Public 
Instruction  in  Salt  Lake  City.  Thus  the  Christian 
schools  of  the  Woman's  Executive  Committee  pre- 
pared the  way  for  a  system  of  public  schools  in  Utah. 
In  189 1  Professor  R.  J.  Caskey,  who  had  been  con- 
nected with  the  school  for  four  years,  became  the 
principal  and  so  continued  until  1904.  The  Institute 
grew  rapidly  during  all  these  years  and  finally  became 
a  part  of  Westminster  College,  a  completed  educa- 
tional plant  of  which  the  state  and  our  Church  may 
justly  be  proud. 

Mt.  Pleasant.  The  Presbytery  of  Utah  was  organ- 
ized in  1874.  It  consisted  of  only  three  ministers  and 
one  elder.  With  the  reluctant  consent  of  the  presby- 
tery the  Rev.  Duncan  J.  McMillan,  who  had  gone  to 
Utah  in  search  of  health,  went  to  Mt.  Pleasant  in  San 
Pete  County,  more  than  one  hundred  miles  south  of 
Salt  Lake  City,  to  open  missionary  work.  On  Sunday, 
March  seventh,  by  invitation  of  the  Mormon  Bishop, 
he  addressed  the  Mormon  Sunday  school  and  in  the 
evening  preached  to  a  large  congregation  in  the  Mor- 
mon Tabernacle.  In  the  evening  he  held  a  conference 
with  a  group  of  the  Apostate  Mormons  in  an  unfin- 
ished dance  hall  which  they  had  erected  for  social  pur- 
poses. 

In  that  town  Brigham  Young  had  been  hailed  as 
"King  Brigham."  This  was  more  than  some  Mormons 
could  stand,  so  the  young  preacher  found  quite  a 
number  of  people  disposed  at  least  to  consider  the 
message  he  was  bringing.  He  succeeded  in  winning 
these  newly  made  friends  to  his  view.  Accordingly 
they  gave  him  the  property,  subject  to  a  building  debt 
of  a  thousand  dollars  which  he  was  to  assume.  He 
8 


114  THE  SOUI.  OF  AMERICA 

was  to  complete  and  furnish  the  building,  maintain  a 
school  for  at  least  five  years,  and  credit  the  sharehold- 
ers, on  the  tuition  of  their  sons  and  daughters,  with 
the  amounts  of  their  investments  severally  on  the 
property. 

Announcement  was  made  that  a  school  would  be 
opened  on  Monday,  March  twenty-second,  provided 
a  sufficient  number  of  pupils  were  pledged.  Before 
the  date  forty-four  pupils  were  enrolled,  but  the 
promise  of  the  temporary  use  of  a  few  benches  from 
an  unused  hall  was  revoked  and  the  opening  of  the 
school  had  to  be  postponed  until  seats  could  be  pro- 
vided. The  young  preacher  bought  rough  lumber, 
carried  it  on  his  shoulder  from  the  lumber  yard  about 
two  blocks  away,  and  with  a  few  tools  and  nails  he 
constructed  the  furniture  in  time  to  open  the  school  on 
April  nineteenth.  The  school  soon  reached  an  attend- 
ance of  a  hundred  and  fifty  pupils.  Later  it  grew  to 
academic  proportions  and  became  known  as  the  "Wa- 
satch Academy,"  an  institution  that  is  well  equipped  in 
every  way  and  generously  maintained  by  the  Woman's 
Board.  In  this  connection  it  is  proper  to  state  the 
relation  of  the  work  in  Utah  to  the  organization  of  the 
Woman's  Executive  Commitee. 

Woman's  Executive  Committee.  At  the  third 
meeting  of  presbytery,  which  was  held  in  Ogden, 
March  1877,  Dr.  Jackson,  coming  all  the  way 
from  Denver  to  insure  a  quorum,  an  overture  was 
prepared  and  sent  up  to  the  General  Asembly  asking 
that  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  be  authorized  and 
empowered  to  undertake  the  support  and  supervision 
of  the  schools  established  and  to  be  established  among 
the  Mormons.    Dr.  Jackson  took  a  copy  of  the  over- 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  115 

ture  and  secured  its  adoption  by  the  Presbytery  of 
Colorado.  The  General  Assembly  acceded  to  these  re- 
quests and  the  outcome  was  the  creation  of  the 
Woman's  Executive  Committee  which  was  organized 
in  the  Bible  House,  New  York  City,  in  1878. 

Thus  were  established  forty-two  mission  schools, 
through  which,  during  the  ten  years,  it  was  estimated 
that  seventy-five  thousand  young  people  had  passed 
under  the  instruction  of  Christian  teachers.  Out  of 
these  schools  had  grown  twelve  churches  and  the 
feeble  presbytery  had  become  a  synod,  embracing  two 
great  territories.  Five  years  later  a  new  order  of 
things  had  come  about  and  a  new  era  had  dawned, 
which  brought  statehood  to  Utah. 

The  names  and  achievements  of  the  noble  army  of 
missionaries,  ministers  and  teachers,  who  wrought 
in  this  field  in  these  ten  years,  are  worthy  to  be 
written  in  the  annals  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions 
and  upon  the  records  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

Nev^^  Stations.  From  1874  the  work  developed  in 
many  directions.  Southward  to  St.  George  fourteen 
stations  were  opened.  At  Ephraim  and  Manti  the 
Rev.  George  W.  Martin  was  assigned  in  1879.  To 
that  field  he  gave  forty  years  of  most  devoted  life, 
even  to  his  death  in  1919. 

South  of  Salt  Lake  City  are  Springville,  Spanish 
Fork  and  Payson.  Here  the  valiant  soldier  of  the 
Cross,  the  Rev.  W.  Leonard,  wrought  from  1877  till 
his  death  in  1885. 

North  of  Salt  Lake  is  Ogden,  the  second  city  in  the 
state.  Missionary  work  began  there  in  1878.  The 
Rev.  George  W.  Gallagher  was  the  first  pastor.  He 
was  followed,  in  1880,  by  the  Rev.  James  F.  Knowles, 


ii6  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

and  he,  in  1885,  by  the  Rev.  Josiah  McClain,  whose 
name  should  always  be  mentioned  in  connection  with 
successful  work  in  Utah.  He  made  headway  in  the 
face  of  bitter  opposition.  The  domination  of  the 
priesthood  in  the  civil  and  educational  life  of  the  city 
had  become  so  intolerable  that  the  non-Mormon  ele- 
ment, roused  to  action,  demanded  and  secured  a  share 
in  the  management  of  the  town.  In  this  work  the  four 
mission  churches — ^the  Presbyterian,  Methodist,  Bap- 
tist and  Congregational  churches — had  a  deciding 
share.  The  work  now  extended  north  through  the 
Cache  Valley.  Brigham,  a  town  so  thoroughly  Mor- 
mon that  it  took  the  name  of  the  Apostle,  boasted  that 
no  one  non-Mormon  should  ever  find  a  home  there. 
But  the  Rev.  S,  L.  Gillespie  from  Corinne  did.  The 
teamsters  who  brought  his  goods  to  town  were  disci- 
plined for  their  crime.  But  by  the  generous  personal 
help  of  Dr.  Kendall  property  was  secured  and  the  mis- 
sion established.  The  bishop,  unable  to  prevent  the 
purchase  of  the  property,  tried  the  efifect  of  an  anath- 
ema. He  cursed  the  house,  the  well,  the  garden  and 
all  the  premises  of  the  missionary.  But,  as  Dr.  Wish- 
ard  says,  the  curse  proved  to  be  a  great  fertilizer.  The 
yield  of  vegetables  that  year  was  unusually  large. 

Very  soon  other  stations  were  opened  In  the  Cache 
Valley.  In  1878  Mr.  Calvin  M.  Parks,  a  Bible  school 
teacher  in  Washington,  was  summoned  by  Sheldon 
Jackson  to  go  to  this  beautiful  valley  to  open  it  to  the 
gospel.  He  began  In  Logan  and  then  In  swift  evangel- 
Ism  pushed  up  the  valley  to  Mlllvllle,  Hyrum,  Wells- 
vllle  and  Mendon.  These  missions  have  had  various 
experiences,  but  all  are  parts  of  the  gospel  move- 
ment that  Is  bound  to  liberate  Utah  from  the  Mormon 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  117 

curse.  In  most  of  these  places  the  school  has  been 
planted  beside  the  Church.  In  some  places  it  has  been 
the  persistent  Christian  force  after  circumstances  had 
made  necessary  the  closing  of  the  church. 

Rev.  Samuel  E.  Wishard,  D.D.  The  autumn  of  1886 
marks  an  important  date  in  the  further  progress  of 
the  work.  It  was  then  that  the  Home  Board  called  the 
Rev.  Samuel  E.  Wishard  from  Kentucky  to  become, 
first,  a  general  missionary,  and  in  1891  Synodical  Mis- 
sionary of  Utah.  He  began  by  holding  evangelistic 
meetings,  first  in  Salt  Lake  City  and  then  swiftly  in 
many  of  the  new  and  struggling  mission  stations, — 
Ogden,  Brigham  and  Logan  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
state,  and  then  Mt.  Pleasant,  St.  George  and  other 
points  on  the  southern  border  attested  the  power  of 
the  gospel.  For  nearly  twenty  years  this  devoted 
leader  with  voice  and  pen  gave  himself  to  the  heroic 
task  of  letting  the  light  of  God's  truth  in  on  the 
Cimmerian  gloom  that  had  darkened  that  beautiful 
land.  On  a  review  of  his  long  service  he  has  permitted 
himself  to  say : 

"The  truth  of  the  gospel  is  making  its  way  down 
through  the  fissures  of  this  slowly  opening  system.  In 
God's  good  time  it  will  reach  the  lowest  strata  of  this 
obdurate  organization  and  we  or  our  successors  will 
see  such  a  turning  to  God  as  will  reward  His  Church 
for  all  her  toil  and  sacrifice." 

A1.ASKA 

We  come  now  to  the  missionary  story  of  the  Ter- 
ritory which  equals  in  size  one-quarter  of  the  entire 
nation.  When  Seward  was  near  his  end  he  was  asked 
what   was   his   most   memorable    achievement.      He 


ii8  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

said,  "The  purchase  of  Alaska,  but  it  will  take  the 
people  a  generation  to  find  it  out."  Before  the  genera- 
tion had  passed  the  people  who  had  jeered  at  the  pur- 
chase had  found  out  that  here  was  a  veritable  treasure 
house  for  the  United  States.  Its  coast  line  exactly 
measures  the  circumference  of  the  globe.  It  was 
purchased  for  a  little  over  seven  million  dollars.  It 
has  already  paid  a  great  many  times  that  price  in  the 
output  of  its  various  treasures,  amounting  in  all,  it 
is  estimated,  to  about  seven  hundred  fifty  million  dol- 
lars. Its  development  has  just  begun.  Its  call  as  a 
missionary  field  was  not  the  number  of  its  people,  but 
their  desperate  condition. 

First  Missionaries.  The  first  missionary  touch  on 
Alaska  came  to  Fort  Wrangell  in  the  persons  of  some 
converts,  the  result  of  a  Wesleyan  Methodist  mission 
near  Fort  Simpson  in  British  Columbia.  They  came 
to  Wrangell  as  workmen  in  search  of  employment. 
But  they  came  as  Christians.  One  of  their  number, 
Philip  McKay,  served  as  evangelist  and  teacher.  He 
opened  a  school  which  had  an  attendance  of  ninety 
during  the  winter,  ^s  a  result  of  that  winter's  work 
forty  of  the  natives  gave  up  their  heathenism  and  pub- 
licly professed  their  faith  in  Christ. 

Dr.  A.  L.  Lindsley.  A  visitor  there,  Mr.  John  C. 
Mallory,  a  temporary  resident  of  Portland,  was  so 
impressed  with  the  wonderful  work  of  grace  he  had 
witnessed  that  he  told  the  story  to  his  pastor.  Dr.  A. 
Iv.  Lindsley,  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Port- 
land. 

A  soldier  (Mr.  Brown)  connected  with  the  post  of 
Fort  Wrangell  (himself  not  a  professing  Christian) 
vvas  also  so  deeply  moved  by  the  transformation  of 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  119 

lives  at  Wrangell  that  he  wrote  a  touching  letter  of 
appeal  for  the  spiritual  help  and  guidance  of  the 
natives  to  General  O.  O.  Howard,  Commander  of  the 
District.  He  referred  the  letter  to  Dr.  Lindsley. 
These  double  appeals  moved  Dr.  Lindsley  to  write  to 
the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  urging  that  a  mission- 
ary be  at  once  sent  to  Alaska.  Lack  of  funds  pre- 
vented a  favorable  response. 

Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson.  At  the  meeting  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  in  1877  the  letter  from  Mr.  Brown  was 
put  into  the  hands  of  Sheldon  Jackson.  Moved  by  its 
appeal  he  published  it  broadcast.  He  also  sent  it  to 
the  Board  of  Home  Missions,  which  just  then  was 
considering  the  sending  of  Dr.  Jackson  on  an  exploring 
tour  to  the  great  West.  The  Board  commissioned  him 
for  this  tour. 

Reaching  Portland  he  found  Dr.  Lindsley  already 
interested  in  a  missionary  to  Alaska.  Providentially, 
Mrs.  A.  R.  MacFarland,  a  woman  of  consecration  and 
courage  and  of  extended  service  among  Nez  Perces 
and  other  Indians,  appeared  in  Portland  and  reported 
herself  ready  to  undertake  the  perilous  mission  to 
Alaska.     The  door  was  opening.    Dr.  Lindsley  said: 

"If  you  will  go  my  church  will  send,  equip  and 
maintain  you." 

The  First  Teacher.  Sheldon  Jackson's  enthusiasm 
led  him  to  interpret  his  commission  to  the  "Great 
West"  as  including  Alaska,  and  he  accompanied  Mrs. 
MacFarland  to  Fort  Wrangell.  The  natives  turned 
over  to  them  the  school  they  had  started  among  them- 
selves, and  then  Dr.  Jackson,  leaving  the  heroic  mis- 
sionary alone  in  that  wilderness — the  only  Christian 
white  woman  in  the  territory — returned  to  the  States 


120  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

to  fire  Presbyterians  for  missions  to  Alaska.  The 
first  reaction  he  received  was  criticism.  **What"  was 
the  cry  that  assailed  him,  "did  you  leave  Mrs.  McFar- 
land  up  there  alone  among  all  those  heathen?" 

"Yes,"  was  the  reply,  "I  did.  She  has  neither  books 
nor  schoolhouse  nor  money  nor  friends,  only  a  few 
converted  but  uninstructed  Indians  and  a  great  many 
heathen  about  her.    Now,  what  will  you  do  for  her?" 

The  response  was  instantaneous  and  enthusiastic. 
In  two  years  he  raised  over  twelve  thousand  dollars 
for  the  mission.  The  regeneration  of  Alaska  had 
begun. 

Rev.  William  Duncan.  Grateful  mention  must  at 
this  point  be  made  of  another  pioneer  in  Alaska  mis- 
ions — ^the  Rev.  William  Duncan.  He  too  came  from 
British  Columbia.  After  a  fruitful  mission  at  Fort 
Simpson  he  transferred  his  Christian  band  to  Metla- 
katla  and  there  established  a  mission  which  so  trans- 
formed the  natives  from  nomadic  heathens  to  indus- 
trious, self-supporting  Christians  that  his  name  de- 
serves mention  with  that  of  Sheldon  Jackson  as  a 
founder  of  Christian  work  in  the  great  Territory. 

Rev.  John  G.  Brady.  Thus  the  work  opened.  New 
men  were  now  needed.  Jackson  soon  found  them. 
In  New  York  he  found  the  Rev.  John  G.  Brady  and 
in  the  Western  Theological  Seminary  a  young  student, 
Mr.  S.  Hall  Young,  both  eager  for  a  chance  at  the 
remote  and  difficult  field.  Brady  went  to  Sitka,  capital 
of  the  Territory,  and  began  the  work  which  In  evan- 
gelistic and  educational  results  has  been  remarkable. 

Education  was  at  the  first  considered  by  the  Alaskan 
missionaries.  Mrs.  A.  R.  MacFarland's  school  at 
Wrangell  was  the  earliest.    That  was  soon  followed  by 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  121 

a  school  at  Sitka,  opened  by  Mr.  Brady,  and  for  which 
he  secured  a  competent  and  devoted  teacher  in  Miss 
F.  E.  Kellogg.  The  attendance  grew  rapidly.  By 
stern  necessity  it  became  an  industrial  school.  The  boys 
were  set  to  work  at  putting  up  the  necessary  school 
buildings.  The  girls  were  taught  to  make  their  own 
clothes  and  care  for  their  homes.  This  early  example 
of  industrial  education  has  largely  guided  the  subse- 
quent school  work  of  the  Territory.  In  time  the  Sitka 
School  added  other  features  as  needed.  Under  guid- 
ance of  the  Woman's  Board,  which  took  charge  of  it 
almost  from  the  first,  it  has  built  a  steam  laundry, 
boys'  and  girls'  hospital  wards,  buildings  for  various 
industries,  library  and  museum,  besides  a  number  of 
model  cottages  for  students'  homes.  In  1912  the  series 
of  attractive  buildings  was  completed  and  its  name 
changed  to  "The  Sheldon  Jackson  School."  It  stands 
to-day  as  a  model  missionary  institute  ministering  to 
all  the  needs  of  students — intellectual,  social,  industrial 
and  spiritual. 

Other  community  service  of  the  Woman's  Board  in 
Alaska  is  represented  by  two  small  hospitals  on  the 
west  coast  of  Prince  of  Wales  Island, — one  at  Kla- 
wock,  where  the  National  Bureau  of  Education  trans- 
ferred all  medical  work  to  the  W^oman's  Board,  and 
the  other  at  Hydaburg,  the  work  similarly  transferred 
by  the  Bureau  of  Education.  In  each  place  the  natives 
supply  the  building. 

In  1879  Dr.  Henry  Kendall,  Secretary  of  the  Home 
Board,  with  Sheldon  Jackson  and  Dr.  Lindsley,  as  the 
representative  of  the  Presbytery  of  Oregon,  went  to 
Wrangell  with  Hall  Young,  who  had  had  nearly  a 
year  of  service  there,  and  organized  the  first  Protestant 


122  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

Church  in  Alaska.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  great 
missionary  movement  which  has  made  the  Presby- 
terian Church  the  pioneer  and  leader  of  mission  work 
in  the  Territory. 

Rev.  S.  Hall  Young.  Sheldon  Jackson  returned  to 
the  States  to  raise  funds  and  seek  additional  men  for 
the  enterprise.  Hall  Young  remained  to  explore. 
John  Muir,  the  famous  traveler,  visited  Alaska  at  that 
time,  fell  in  with  Mr.  Young  and  together  they  visited 
a  dozen  tribes  in  that  southeastern  part  of  the  Terri- 
tory, finding  everywhere  destitution,  disease,  sin  and 
wretchedness.  The  heart  of  the  missionary  was  deeply 
moved,  and  in  a  short  time  thrilling  appeals  for  help 
besieged  the  Board  of  Home  Missions. 

The  next  year  he  visited  the  towns  of  the  Hydahs 
and  the  Thlingets,  finding  everywhere  appalling  moral 
conditions  and  inciting  him  to  renewed  efforts  to 
arouse  the  Church  to  her  missionary  obligation. 

Sheldon  Jackson — sometimes  in  Alaska,  sometimes 
in  the  States — continued  to  be  the  inspiring  and  guid- 
ing genius  of  the  romantic  adventure — to  give  to  the 
natives  a  knowledge  of  the  gospel,  to  the  children  the 
advantage  of  schools  and  to  the  sick  the  comforts  of 
the  hospital. 

The  Reindeer.  On  his  visit  to  the  Territory  in 
1890  he  found  the  sources  of  food  supply  so  rapidly 
failing  that  he  perceived  unless  help  could  come  from 
the  outside  starvation  would  soon  confront  the  na- 
tives. He  conceived  the  idea  of  securing  food  by 
bringing  reindeer  over  from  Siberia.  Congress  having 
failed  to  supply  funds,  Jackson  appealed  to  the  public 
for  help  sufficient  to  prove  his  plan  to  be  practicable, 
^ith  two  thousand  one  hundred  forty-five  dollars  thus 


\.^ 

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SK. 

JBtfcg 

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-:,-: 

1.    i 

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^. 

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^^^^^^^^^^I^PPiHI 

Sheldon  Jackson  School,  Sitka.  Alaska. 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  123 

secured  he  purchased  goods  suitable  for  barter,  hur- 
ried over  to  Siberia,  secured  sixteen  head  of  deer  and 
landed  them  safely  on  the  western  coast.  He  had  a 
fine  vision  of  that  to  which  a  few  reindeer  might  come. 
He  saw  in  them  the  physical  salvation  of  the  natives. 
Under  the  snows  they  would  dig  out  the  moss  on 
which  they  could  live ;  their  meat  would  be  food  for 
starving  Alaska  and  their  skins  would  be  clothing. 
Dr.  Jackson's  vision  has  come  to  pass. 

In  1893  Congress,  at  last  convinced  that  the  mission- 
ary had  found  a  solution  of  the  food  problem  for 
Alaska,  voted  an  appropriation  of  six  thousand  dol- 
lars for  the  purchase  of  additional  deer.  Other  herds 
were  from  time  to  time  brought  over  until  1903,  when 
Russia  forbade  their  further  exportation.  But  the 
herds  already  secured  continually  increased,  until  now 
they  are  estimated  to  number  approximately  one  hun- 
dred fifty  thousand. 

From  the  year  1879  the  missionary  progress  in 
Alaska  was  rapid.  In  1884  a  church  was  organized  at 
Sitka,  forty  natives  and  five  white  members  being 
enrolled.  The  same  year  Mrs.  MacFarland's  home  for 
girls  was  united  with  the  Industrial  and  Training 
School  in  the  capital. 

Hoonah,  with  a  tribe  numbering  about  one  thou- 
sand, in  1881  began  to  enjoy  missionary  service  and 
the  privileges  of  a  school. 

Haines,  Juneau,  Saxman,  Skagway  and  many  small 
stations  along  the  shores  and  islands  of  Southeastern 
Alaska  were  opened,  in  many  places  the  school  stand- 
ing beside  the  church. 

Comity.  A  number  of  denominations  had  now 
entered  the  Territory  and  it  was  evident  to  Dr.  Jack- 


124  'THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

son  that  to  prevent  overlapping,  and  so  the  waste  of 
missionary  effort,  there  should  be  mutual  cooperation 
between  the  various  Mission  Boards.  To  secure  this 
he  suggested  a  conference  on  cooperation.  It  met  in 
New  York  in  1883,  with  the  result  that  a  territorial 
division  of  responsibility  was  agreed  upon.  The 
southeastern  part  of  the  Territory  was  assigned  as 
the  special  responsibility  of  the  Presbyterians.  To  the 
Episcopalians  was  given  the  Valley  of  the  Yukon; 
Kodiak,  with  Cook's  Inlet,  was  given  to  the  Baptists, 
while  to  the  Methodists  were  assigned  the  Aleutian 
and  Shumagin  Islands;  to  the  Congregationalists  was 
given  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  and  to  the  Moravians  the 
valleys  of  the  Kuskokwim  and  the  Nushagak.  This 
comity  of  agreement  has  been  practically  observed 
during  all  these  years. 

The  Gold  Rush.  In  1896  the  discovery  of  gold  in 
the  interior  determined  a  great  rush  of  prospectors 
and  miners  to  undertake  the  perils  and  hardships  of 
the  severe  climate  and  the  lack  of  home  comforts. 
In  multitudes  they  climbed  the  Chilcoot  Pass  and 
pressed  down  the  Yukon, — to  find  in  many  cases  dis- 
enchantment and  failure,  in  all  cases  suffering,  priva- 
tions and  homesickness.  It  was  the  home  missionary's 
chance. 

In  1899  and  1900  a  number  of  new  missionaries  en- 
tered the  service.  Speedily  stations  were  opened  from 
Dawson  to  Nome,  and  many  a  weary  and  discouraged, 
or  prosperous  and  reckless,  heart  found  help  and 
strength  to  meet  temptations  and  to  endure  hardships. 
Not  much  fruit  appeared  in  established  Christian  in- 
stitutions. The  gospel  was  flung  at  a  feverish  proces- 
sion.   But  enough  has  been  told  to  make  us  sure  that 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  125 

eternity  will  reveal  unexpected  harvest  from  that 
heroic  seed-sowing. 

Statistics.  The  progress  which  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  thus  far 
made  is  indicated  as  follows : 

There  are  two  presbyteries — the  Presbytery  of 
Alaska,  organized  in  1883,  the  Presbytery  of  Yukon, 
organized  in  1899. 

There  are  twenty  churches  in  the  two  presbyteries 
with  membership  of  one  thousand  six  hundred  twenty- 
two. 

There  are  sixty-two  unorganized  missions. 

There  are  twenty-five  Sunday  schools,  with  a  mem- 
bership of  one  thousand  nine  hundred  forty-three. 

There  is  a  total  of  fifty-eight  missionary  workers. 

There  is  no  space  to  name  the  men  who,  as  good  sol- 
diers of  the  King,  enforced  the  lines  in  that  far  off 
battle  for  righteousness.  The  name  of  the  Rev,  S. 
Hall  Young,  D.D.,  has  already  been  recorded.  Always 
in  the  front  rank  of  every  advance  for  a  generation  he 
has  sounded  the  gospel  in  the  Alaskan  wilderness.  He 
has  *'mushed"  through  untrodden  forests,  camped  be- 
side unmeasured  streams,  climbed  over  passes  and 
mountains,  seeking  the  lost,  encouraging  the  discour- 
aged, nursing  the  sick, — always  teaching  and  preach- 
ing, and  wherever  practicable  building  houses  of  wor- 
ship and  organizing  churches. 

The  stations  that  have  been  scenes  of  good  work 
may  be  named  as  follows  : 

In  addition  to  the  points  already  named  and  long 
occupied  in  Southeastern  Alaska,  missions  have  more 
recently  been  opened  on  the  southern  coast  at  Cordova, 
Anchorage   and   Matanuska.     In  the   interior,   since 


126  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

1899,  at  Eagle,  Rampart,  Fairbanks,  Nenana,  Ruby 
and  Iditarod,  and  on  the  northwestern  coast  at  Nome, 
Teller,  Council  and  Barrow,  the  latter  being  the  far- 
thest north  mission  station  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  with  the  largest  church  membership  in  that 
Presbytery  of  Yukon  and  next  to  Sitka  the  largest  in 
the  Territory. 

The  Future.  Of  the  future  of  Alaska,  as  a  Terri- 
tory and  as  a  mission  field,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Its 
mountains  are  loaded  with  copper,  gold,  coal,  marble 
and  tin;  its  streams  and  shores  teem  with  fish;  its 
interior  regions  have  large  agricultural  possibilities. 
Railroads  are  being  built,  commercial  lines  established, 
good  government  and  educational  advantages  are  being 
secured.  A  hardy  population  like  that  which  has  en- 
riched Scandinavia  will  soon  be  there  to  put  that 
bountiful  nature  under  tribute  to  their  enterprise  and 
thrift.  And  the  Church  of  Christ  must  keep  pace 
with  that  development.  The  Presbyterian  Church,  the 
missionary  pioneer  of  Alaska,  must  continue  to  lead. 

At  this  writing  a  great  forward  step  in  Christian 
cooperation  is  in  process  in  regard  to  Alaska.  Under 
inspiration  of  the  Home  Missions  Council  an  organi- 
zation has  been  effected  of  the  "Associated  Evangel- 
ical Church  of  Alaska."  It  is  composed  of  all  mission- 
ary organizations  doing  work  in  that  Territory.  It 
plans  for  annual  meetings  to  consider  the  work  in  its 
entirety,  to  avoid  competition  and  to  allocate  responsi- 
bility, both  as  to  territory  and  kinds  of  work.  It  will 
make  recommendations  concerning  the  opening  of  new 
work  and  the  planting  of  churches  and  generally  plan 
for  greater  efficiency  and  a  closer  spirit  of  fellowship. 
The  progress  of  this  new  step  in  cooperative  effort 
will  be  watched  with  keenest  interest. 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  127 

Se:i,f-Supporting  Synods. 

The  attitude  and  service  of  the  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions in  self-supporting  synods  demand  at  least  a  few- 
paragraphs  in  this  history.  In  1870,  Dr.  James  Mc- 
Cosh,  President  of  Princeton  College,  pressed  upon  the 
General  Assembly  the  duty  of  a  more  adequate  support 
of  the  feebler  churches  in  the  eastern  states.  In  1871 
the  Assembly  adopted  a  plan  of  sustentation.  It  was 
soon  recognized  that  the  end  desired  was  one  of  the 
functions  of  the  Home  Board.  The  Sustentation 
Scheme,  therefore,  in  1874  was  passed  over  to  the 
Board.  Two  collections  were  ordered — one  for  home 
missions  proper,  and  the  other  for  sustentation.  The 
difficulty  of  keeping  alive  an  interest  in  two  agencies 
so  close  akin  soon  became  manifest.  In  1882  to  relieve 
the  situation  the  Home  Board  proposed  the  plan  of 
synodical  self-support. 

Suggestion  from  the  Board.  "The  Board  is  of 
the  opinion  that  the  (Sustentation)  Scheme  could  be 
made  to  meet  all  the  expectations  of  its  most  sanguine 
friends  if  the  eastern  synods  should  see  fit  to  adopt  it 
for  supplying  their  waning  churches.  The  West  is  open- 
ing up  so  rapidly,  and  the  demands  made  by  its  desti- 
tute fields  on  our  treasury  are  so  great,  that  it  would 
be  well  for  the  large  and  wealthy  Synods  of  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  and,  perhaps, 
Michigan,  Indiana  and  Illinois  to  undertake  the  sup- 
port of  their  own  weak  churches  by  special  contribu- 
tions, called  sustentation  contributions." 

The  suggestion  was  approved  by  the  General  Asv 
sembly  and  commended  to  the  favorable  consideration 
of  the  synods. 


128  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

Kentucky  was  the  first  synod  to  respond  to  the  sug- 
gestion, though  its  plan  did  not  contemplate  and  has 
not  yet  achieved  entire  self-support.  In  1883  it  en- 
tered on  its  project  of  supplementing  by  special  gifts 
the  amount  received  from  the  Home  Board  for  special 
work  within  its  bounds. 

The  synods  named  in  the  action  of  the  Assembly  did 
not  move  so  promptly.  The  new  situation  brought 
about  by  immigration  and  by  industrial  conditions 
forced  itself  on  the  attention  of  these  synods.  It  was 
no  longer  the  question  of  merely  aiding  feeble 
churches,  which  was  what  promoters  of  sustentation 
had  in  view.  New  lines  of  work  not  before  contem- 
plated must  now  be  undertaken.  More  and  more  it 
was  seen  that  synodical  missions  and  the  work  of 
the  Home  Board  were  practically  identical.  Would 
they  not  conflict?  If  synodical  self-support  succeeded, 
would  it  not  be  at  some  serious  cost  to  the  mother 
Board  ?  These  and  similar  considerations  gave  pause. 
Something  must  be  done.  Loyalty  to  the  Board  must, 
of  course,  be  maintained.  Synodical  independence 
must  be  had  on  a  basis  consistent  with  that  loyalty.  In 
1886  the  Synod  of  New  Jersey  decided  on  the  experi- 
ment. Pennsylvania,  Baltimore  and  New  York  soon 
followed,  respectively  in  1888,  1890  and  1897.  One  of 
the  first  of  the  states  of  the  Central  West  to  engage  in 
this  plan  was  Indiana  in  1890,  soon  followed  by  Illi- 
nois in  1895.  A  little  later  (in  1898)  Ohio  came  into 
line. 

These  and  the  other  synods  that  followed,  viz: 
Michigan — 1901,  Wisconsin — 1903,  Iowa — 1904,  Kan- 
sas— 1908,  took  up  the  new  plan  not  on  any  com- 
mon program  but  each  according  to  its  circumstances 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  129 

and  ability.  Thus,  New  Jersey's  scheme  provided,  as 
a  primary  obligation,  the  duty  of  every  church  to  sup- 
port the  mother  Board  by  at  least  one  collection  for  it 
every  year.  There  should  also  be  one  collection  for 
synodical  home  missions. 

Some  of  the  synods  refused  to  give  up  connection 
with  the  Home  Board  at  once,  but  would  attain  self- 
support  by  gradual  steps.  The  four  Synods  which 
were  an  exception  to  this  program  were  New  Jersey, 
Indiana,  Illinois  and  Ohio.  These  from  the  first  paid 
their  own  way  entirely,  though  doing  something  more 
or  less  for  the  Home  Board. 

The  strong  Synods  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania, 
though  in  different  ways  maintaining  some  direct  re- 
lation to  the  Board,  pay  far  more  to  its  treasury  than 
they  have  drawn  out  of  it.  The  Synod  of  Pennsylva- 
nia, while  maintaining  absolute  independence  to  the 
extent  at  one  time  of  declining  to  the  Home  Board 
direct  access  to  its  churches,  has,  of  course,  been  a 
heavy  contributor  to  the  Board  in  addition  to  carrying 
on  an  ever  increasing  work  in  the  immigrant  and  in- 
dustrial communities  of  the  Keystone  State. 

General  Principles.  While  every  synod  has  thus 
followed  the  line  of  its  own  necessities  and  oppor- 
tunities, all  united  in  certain  general  principles  which 
have  guided  their  work.  They  may  be  tersely  put  as 
follows : 

First.  These  synods  have  felt  that  the  local  de- 
mands forced  by  new  conditions  were  more  than  they 
could  reasonably  expect  the  Board  of  Missions  to  as- 
sume. While  new  fields  were  pressing  on  the  Board, 
as  well  as  on  the  synod,  it  seemed  only  reasonable  that 
9 


130  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

the  synods  should  strive  at  once  to  relieve  the  Board 
and  to  overtake  their  new  obligations. 

Second.  There  was  a  common  conviction  that  many 
of  those  obligations  were  of  a  kind  that  could  better 
be  met  by  close  observation  and  supervision.  The 
near-at-hand  survey  and  administration  would,  for 
certain  kinds  of  service,  be  more  effective  than  that  at 
a  greater  distance.  The  appeal  to  meet  the  new  duties 
would  come  with  more  force  if  the  need  were  under 
the  very  shadow  of  the  Church.  Thus,  the  industrial 
problems,  getting  so  acute  as  to  threaten  the  stability 
of  whole  communities  in  all  their  interests — problems 
by  which  every  church  member  would  be  confronted 
in  his  daily  walks  along  the  streets,  would  have  a 
mightier  pull  on  Christian  sympathies,  service  and 
gifts,  than  those  which  could  be  visualized  and  which 
would  be  known  of  only  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear. 

Third.  The  synods  have  not  allowed  any  local 
pressure  to  break  their  sense  of  responsibility  for  the 
national  service.  If  at  first  the  tendency  was  to  a  nar- 
rower vision  and  to  undue  emphasis  on  self-care,  that 
tendency  has  been  overcome.  Self-support  has  been 
a  stairway  to  the  wider  outlook.  Just  as  home  mis- 
sions, rightly  stressed,  leads  to  a  more  definite  interest 
in  the  lands  of  the  world,  so  synodical  self-support 
links  the  local  to  the  larger  missionary  enterprise. 

Effects.  The  growth  of  the  interest  in  self-support 
by  the  eleven  synods  now  operating  on  that  plan  indi- 
cates the  strong  hold  it  has  on  those  who  have  en- 
tered upon  it.  The  assumption  of  independence,  while 
in  a  few  instances  under  the  pressure  of  local  need  it 
worked  as  a  detriment  to  the  national  interests,  in  the 
long  run  has  developed  a  keener  sense  of  responsibil- 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  131 

ity  to  the  field  that  was  nearest  not  only,  but  a  gradu- 
ally broadening  vision  of  the  larger  work  and  an  in- 
creasing response  to  its  claims. 

Administration 

It  is  proper  here  to  interrupt  the  story  on  the  field 
to  note  some  important  changes  of  administration.  In 
September,  1881,  Dr.  Dickson,  worn  out  by  exhaust- 
ing labors,  passed  to  his  reward,  and  was  succeeded 
by  Dr.  William  C.  Roberts,  President  of  Lake  Foregt 
University.  In  1886  he  resigned  to  resume  his  w^ork 
in  the  University.  Dr.  William  Irwin  succeeded  him 
in  1887.  In  1890  Dr.  Duncan  J.  McMillan  was  added 
to  the  staff.  Dr.  Kendall,  full  of  years  and  honors, 
died  September  ninth,  1892.  In  1892  Dr.  Roberts,  who 
had  been  recalled  from  the  Presidency  of  Lake  Forest 
University,  again  became  Secretary  and  with  him  were 
associated  Dr.  Irwin  and  Dr.  McMillan.  Dr.  Irwin 
resigned  in  1892. 

In  1898  the  Board  decided  on  a  radical  departure. 
Convinced  that  coordinate  secretaries  were  less  effec- 
tive than  a  single  Secretary,  who  should  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  the  entire  administration,  the  Board, 
with  high  appreciation  of  the  services  of  Dr.  Roberts 
and  Dr.  MacMillan,  accepted  their  resignations  and  in 
their  place  elected  the  Rev.  Charles  L.  Thompson, 
D.D.,  pastor  of  the  Madison  Avenue  Presbyterian 
Church  of  New  York  City,  who  for  ten  years  had  been 
a  member  of  the  Board.  He  was  given  general  execu- 
tive charge,  with  such  assistants  as  he  might  find  nec- 
essary. 

He  entered  upon  the  office  March  first,  1898.  He 
presently  chose  as  Assistant  Secretary  the  Rev.  John 


132  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

Dixon,  D.D.,  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Trenton,  New  Jersey.  Dr.  Dixon  entered  on  his 
office  in  September.  In  1902,  the  demands  of  the 
work  yet  increasing,  Mr.  John  Willis  Baer,  General 
Secretary  of  the  Young  People's  Society  of  Christian 
Endeavor,  was  added  to  the  staff.  On  his  resignation 
in  1906  Mr.  Joseph  Ernest  McAfee  of  Park  College 
succeeded  to  his  office.  In  1907  the  Rev.  Baxter  P. 
Fullerton,  D.D.,  was  chosen  Field  Secretary,  with 
headquarters  at  St.  Louis,  and  with  reference  to 
the  work  in  the  district  which  had  been  the  special 
field  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,  which 
had  united  with  the  parent  body  in  1906.  In  1908  the 
enlarging  work  in  the  West  seeming  to  require  closer 
supervision  the  Board,  on  request  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, elected  four  field  secretaries.  For  the  District 
of  the  Southwest  Dr.  Fullerton,  for  the  Northwest  the 
Rev.  Robert  N.  Adams,  D.D.,  for  the  Rocky  Mountain 
District  the  Rev.  Robert  M.  Donaldson,  D.D.,  and  for 
the  Pacific  Coast  the  Rev.  William  S.  Holt,  D.D.  In 
1910  Dr.  Adams,  after  a  great  career,  resigned  and  the 
Rev.  William  H.  Kearns,  D.D.,  was  elected  to  succeed 
him.  These  Field  Secretaries  gave  valiant  service 
until  the  reorganization  of  the  Board  in  1914.  Mr. 
Harvey  C.  Olin  was  the  efficient  Treasurer  of  the 
Board  from  1897  until  his  death  in  19 18.  In  1906  the 
two  Assistant  Secretaries  became  "Associate."  The 
executives  thus  constituted  continued  unchanged  dur- 
ing the  fruitful  first  years  of  the  twentieth  century, 
ending  by  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Thompson  in  1914.  The 
Rev.  John  Hall,  D.D.,  was  President  of  the  Board 
from  1881  to  1898.  On  his  death  the  Rev.  D.  Stuart 
Dodge,  D.D.,  was  chosen  President  and  served  until  ill 


FROM  THE  MISSISSIPPI  TO  THE  YUKON  133 

health  compelled  his  resignation  in  1914.  The  Rev. 
Wilton  Merle-Smith,  D.D.,  was  then  called  to  the 
position. 

Reorganization.  Another  reorganization  followed 
in  191 5.  The  Board  reverted  to  the  plan  of  coordinate 
Secretaries  and  Dr.  B.  P.  FuUerton  of  St.  Louis  was 
added  to  the  staff.  This  plan,  however,  continued  only 
until  191 7,  when  the  Assembly  and  the  Board  agreed 
to  resume  the  plan  of  a  single  secretary  with  such  ad- 
ditional helpers  as  might  be  required.  To  this  office 
the  Rev.  John  A.  Marquis,  D.D.,  President  of  Coe 
College  in  Iowa,  was  called.  He  entered  on  his  work 
in  the  autumn,  Dr.  Dixon  and  Mr.  McAfee  remaining 
as  Associates.  In  the  spring  of  1918  they  resigned  and 
Dr.  Fullerton  remained  the  only  Associate.  In  1919 
the  Rev.  John  McDowell,  D.D.,  pastor  of  the  Brown 
Memorial  Church  of  Baltimore,  Maryland,  and  the 
Rev.  William  R.  King,  D.D.,  pastor  of  the  First  Pres- 
byterian Church  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  were  elected 
Secretaries.  A  list  of  the  officers  of  both  Boards  from 
the  beginning  of  their  organizations  will  be  found  in 
an  appendix. 


VII 

IMMIGRATION 

IMMIGRATION  as  a  question  and  a  problem  is  of 
recent  date.  It  is  peculiar  now  in  volume  and 
varieties.  The  missionary  work  sketched  in  the 
earlier  chapters  of  this  book  may  be  said  to  have  been 
work  by  immigrants  for  immigrants.  All  the  people 
except  the  Indians  came  from  other  lands,  were  here 
brought  into  relations  to  one  another  and  in  a  small 
way  constituted  a  problem.  For  example,  the  rela- 
tions of  Dutch  and  English  on  Manhattan  were  at 
times  so  strained  as  to  resemble  an  immigration  prob- 
lem. Inheritors  of  a  common  faith,  they  were  at  times 
inclined  to  persecute  one  another. 

Gradually  the  different  colonies  localized  in  con- 
genial groups,  or,  if  made  up  of  racial  mixtures, 
learned  to  accommodate  themselves  to  each  other. 
The  Pilgrims  learned  to  tolerate  Puritans,  the  Dutch 
and  English  fraternized  and  Scotch-Irish  and  Ger- 
mans united  to  make  stronger  communities.  Because 
they  were  at  last  of  the  one  common  reformation  stock 
a  unified  nation  resulted. 

Incoming  Foreigners.  With  the  widening  of  the 
basis  of  immigration,  conditions  changed  and  gradu- 
ally there  came  about  in  its  full  size  what  we  now  call 
the  "Immigration  Problem."  Before  the  nineteenth 
century  there  was  practically  no  immigration  as  we 
now  use  the  term.     Beginning  early  in  that  century 

134 


IMMIGRATION  135 

there  was,  however,  a  steady  and  soon  a  very  rapid 
rise  in  the  number  of  immigrants.  Before  1820  no 
accurate  census  was  kept,  but  the  estimated  incoming 
of  foreigners  from  1776  to  1820  was  only  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand.  The  following  table  will  illus- 
trate the  rapid  increase: 

1821-1830  143439 

1831-1840  599.125 

1841-1850  1,713.251 

1851-1860  2,598,214 

1861-1870  2,314,824 

1871-1880  2,812,191 

1881-1890  5,246,613 

1891-1900  3,687,564 

1901-1910  8,795,386 

It  thus  appears  that  the  decade  from  1881  to  1890 
marks  the  beginning  of  the  high  tide.  The  variations 
from  year  to  year  and  decade  to  decade  are  determined 
by  two  factors, — favorable  economic  conditions  in  our 
own  country,  tempting  people  to  seek  the  larger  op- 
portunities appearing  here,  and  the  pressure  of  hard 
times  or  oppressive  civic  conditions  in  the  various 
lands  whence  the  immigrants  come.  The  same  factors 
determine  in  large  measure  the  ratio  of  those  who  re- 
turned to  their  own  countries;  but  by  no  means 
wholly.  In  five  years,  ending  June,  1912,  the  immi- 
gration from  twelve  races  was  4,292,985.  Of  these 
1,452,239  returned,  leaving  us  a  net  gain  in  population 
of  2,848,746.  Speaking  roughly,  about  one-third  of 
those  who  came  went  back.  But  the  ranking  order  by 
races  varied  widely.  Some  go  back  readily.  Others 
come  to  stay. 


136  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

Net  Results.  The  Italians  take  first  rank  in  the 
proportion  of  those  returning.  More  than  half  of  the 
immigration  of  901,000  returned  within  the  five  year 
period.  The  Poles  come  next  in  order.  Of  the  430,- 
62y  who  came,  almost  one-third  went  back.  So  also 
the  Magyars.  Of  the  123,979  ^^^  came,  almost  one- 
fourth  were  added  to  our  population.  With  the  He- 
brews, the  Scotch  and  the  Irish  a  different  story  is 
told.  Of  417,000  Hebrews  who  entered  our  ports  in 
five  years,  less  than  one-twelfth  departed.  Of  the 
180,162  Irish  almost  one-thirteenth  departed.  The 
Scotch  have  the  best  record.  Of  the  103,990  who 
came,  almost  one-ninth  returned.  These  figures  are 
suggestive.  They  lessen  somewhat  the  pressure  of  the 
immigration  problem. 

The  size  of  that  problem  can  be  measured  only  by 
net  results.  Thus,  when  we  say  in  those  years  1,456,- 
099  came  from  southeastern  Europe,  from  populations 
whose  religious  ideals  are  farther  from  our  own,  the 
stern  fact  is  very  much  relieved  when  we  add  that  the 
permanent  accession  to  our  population  from  those 
sources  was  considerably  less  than  half  that  number. 
When  again  we  say  that,  of  the  284,152  people  who 
came  to  us  from  the  British  Isles  only  26,103  returned, 
we  have  a  further  encouraging  sign. 

Less  Desirables.  But  the  general  fact  remains  that 
the  great  bulk  of  our  permanent  immigrants  during  the 
past  few  decades  have  come  to  us  from  those  ele- 
ments of  population  which  are  considered  the  less  de- 
sirable. Not  only  are  the  people  of  eastern  and  south- 
eastern Europe  farther  removed  from  our  American 
ideals,  but  they  are  in  many  cases  on  a  lower  level. 
The  tendency  comes  from  the  inheritance  they  bring 


IMMIGRATION  137 

with  them.  Te  be  quite  fair,  however,  to  them  and  to 
all  our  immigrants  some  blame  must  also  be  conceded 
to  their  surroundings  in  their  new  homes.  Not  infre- 
quently unsanitary  living  conditions,  temptations  of 
the  saloon  and  brothel,  and  other  deterrent  factors 
have  much  to  do  with  pulling  down  these  people  who, 
ignorant  and  unfortified  by  inherited  high  principles, 
readily  fall  into  the  evil  ways  alluringly  opened  before 
them. 

Coal  Mining  Region.  The  Rev.  William  Payne 
Shriver,  D.D.,  Superintendent  of  City  and  Immigrant 
Work,  thus  quotes  the  situation  in  a  county  in  the  coal 
mines  of  Pennsylvania  as  it  appeared  a  few  years  ago : 

*'Its  foreign  born  population  numbers  forty-eight 
thousand ;  it  has  seventeen  distilleries,  which  made  in 
a  year  fifty  thousand  barrels  of  whiskey ;  it  has  nine 
breweries,  which  brewed  one  hundred  thirty  thousand 
barrels  of  beer.  At  the  long  bars  of  the  saloons,  which 
line  the  main  street  of  its  county-seat,  you  may  count 
from  a  hundred  to  a  hundred  and  thirty  men  at  a  time. 
In  the  first  six  months  of  the  year  19 12  there  were 
seven  hundred  commitments  to  the  county  jail.  More 
than  half  could  neither  read  nor  write.  More  than 
half  were  foreigners.  When  a  patriotic  citizen  in  the 
hard  coal  region  asked  Dr.  Steiner,  'What  will  these 
foreigners  do  to  America  when  they  get  the  power?' 
he  answered,  'They  will  help  save  it,  or  they  will  aid 
you  in  destroying  it.  It  is  very  much  in  your  own 
power  whether  they  shall  be  leaven  or  dynamite.'  " 

Undoubtedly  we  increase  the  size  of  our  immigra- 
tion problem  by  our  own  acts.  We  bring  them  here 
from  surroundings  that  spell  moral  weakness  and  we 
introduce   them   to   social   and   industrial   conditions 


138  THE  SOULv  OF  AMERICA 

which  only  high  moral  standards  could  enable  people 
to  stand.  For  example,  in  Chicago,  in  a  typical  work- 
ing people's  ward,  to  a  population  of  seventy  thousand 
there  are  three  hundred  and  four  saloons,  one  saloon 
to  every  two  hundred  and  thirty-one  persons.  And 
yet  we  wonder  that  the  criminal  courts  are  crowded. 

Duty  of  Government.  Our  welcome  to  foreigners 
is  attended  with  perils.  The  practical  question 
emerges,  "How  shall  they  be  met  ?"  It  is  this  question 
to  which  our  people  are  giving  instant  and  most  seri- 
ous attention.  While  we  realize  that  immigration  has 
made  us  the  people  we  are,  there  is  a  sense  of  the  fact 
that  unless  properly  restrained  or  guided  it  yet  may 
make  us  what  we  would  not  be.  Two  institutions  are 
primarily  concerned.  One  is  the  Government.  Con- 
gress is  so  alive  to  the  situation  that  at  almost  every 
session  the  question  is  up  for  discussion.  That  dis- 
cussion takes  two  forms.  One  is  the  open  door  policy, 
which  until  recently  has  ruled  in  an  almost  unre- 
stricted way.  The  other  is  the  policy  of  restriction, 
more  or  less  severe.  This  varies  from  year  to  year, 
but  as  the  perils  from  accessions  to  our  population  in- 
crease, the  tendency  to  a  careful  and  even  severe 
restriction  increases  likewise.  We  place  a  greater 
number  of  guards  at  our  ports  of  entry,  guarding 
against  such  elements  as  would  bring  disease,  sub- 
normal inheritance  and  liability  to  crime. 

The  Government's  problem  is  augmented  each  year 
by  our  closer  relations  with  the  Orient  and  the  perils 
to  be  encountered,  whichever  way  our  legislation  may 
tend.  The  policy  of  exclusion  which  would  firmly  bar 
the  doors  against  all  aliens  from  the  Orient  is  now 
seen  to  be  fraught  with  international  dangers.     The 


IMMIGRATION  139 

policy  of  the  open  door  holds  domestic  perils.  It  is  not 
the  province  of  this  book  to  do  more  than  thus  to  hint 
at  the  difficulties  that  beset  our  law-makers  in  their 
endeavor  to  view  and  to  act  upon  this  question  in  the 
way  that  will  be  in  harmony  with  our  historic  attitude 
and  at  the  same  time  that  will  protect  our  land  from 
evils  arising  out  of  new  conditions. 

Church's  Responsibility.  Immigration  being  thus 
accepted  on  such  terms  as  shall  be  decided  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, which  has  the  first  responsibility,  the  question 
then  comes  to  the  Church  of  Christ.  What  is  her  re- 
sponsibility and  how  shall  she  meet  it?  Her  responsi- 
bility is  twofold : 

First,  as  a  part  of  the  body  politic  it  is  her  duty  to 
aid  in  such  ways  as  will  make  safe  and  effective  the 
national  policy.  If  there  is  danger  of  imported  law- 
lessness, if  ignorance  and  superstition  are  in  the  way 
of  good  citizenship,  if  unwholesome  social  customs 
have  been  imported,  or  bad  industrial  conditions  pre- 
vail, it  is  the  duty  of  the  Church  intelligently  and  fully 
to  recognize  these  facts  and  devise  ways  to  meet  them. 

The  second  responsibility  of  the  Church  is  in  the 
interest  of  the  individual  foreigners  and  of  the  King- 
dom of  Christ  represented  in  the  family  and  in  the 
community.  Her  duty  is  evangelistic  and  educational. 
The  gospel  in  its  purity  and  simplicity  will  come  with 
a  pleasant  surprise  to  the  large  body  of  our  aliens. 
They  had  never  heard  it  before.  If  given  with  sym- 
pathy and  love  it  will  often  meet  a  ready  and  thank- 
ful acceptance. 

Immigration  Fellowship.  The  success  of  evangel- 
ism depends  in  large  measure  on  knowledge  of  the 
people  and  appreciation  of  their  inheritance  and  cir- 


140  THE  SOUIv  OF  AMERICA 

cumstances,  including  a  working  knowledge  of  their 
language.  The  Board  of  Home  Missions,  through  its 
Immigration  Department,  was  the  first  national  church 
agency  to  meet  these  requirements.  It  did  this  by- 
offering  a  series  of  Immigration  Fellowships  to  recent 
graduates  of  theological  seminaries.  These  Fellow- 
ships imply  residence  and  study  abroad  at  the  sources 
of  immigration  for  a  period  of  eighteen  months  or 
more.  In  the  first  two  years  of  this  movement,  out  of 
seven  men  appointed,  four  were  honor  graduates  of 
their  respective  seminaries. 

"These  men  have  gained  a  rich  background  for  their 
work  in  this  country — a  working  knowledge  of  the 
language  and  above  all  else  a  passionate  and  con- 
tagious enthusiasm  for  their  ministry.  They  will 
serve  not  alone  in  interpreting  the  best  ideals  of  Amer- 
ican Christian  life  to  the  immigrant  but  in  interpret- 
ing back  again  to  the  Church  the  needs  and  aspirations 
of  our  new  Americans." 

Important  as  is  this  service  of  evangelism  and  rich 
as  have  already  been  its  fruits,  it  cannot  too  often  be 
said  that  the  best  results  will  come  where  the  foreigner 
has  been  brought  into  close  relations  with  Christian 
communities  by  the  sympathetic  attitude  and  helpful 
personal  ministry  of  the  Christian  people  among  whom 
his  lot  is  cast.  It  is  not  wholly  a  question  of  preaching 
and  hearing  the  gospel.  It  is  in  the  last  analysis  the 
commendation  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  by  the  lives  of 
His  followers.  Not  many  men  can  become  fitted  to 
be  successful  preachers  to  immigrants,  but  all  Chris- 
tian men  and  women  can  be  to  them  messengers  of  life 
by  the  tone  and  temper  of  their  own  example  and  min- 
istry as  neighbors. 


IMMIGRATION  141 

Various  Agencies.  This  leads  to  the  remark  that 
the  two  responsibiHties  to  which  we  have  alluded  over- 
lap and  mingle.  The  right  kind  of  Christian  living  will 
not  be  content  with  a  merely  personal  ministry.  It 
will  illustrate  that  ministry  by  bringing  Americans  and 
foreigners  together  in  various  agencies  and  societies. 
It  will  express  its  influence  in  organizations  that  are 
the  fruit  of  Christianity  and  the  evidence  of  its  genu- 
ineness. Christian  social  settlements  will  naturally 
come  into  being.  These  will  seek  to  minister  to  every 
need  of  the  community — personal,  social,  intellectual, 
and  moral.  Then  will  come  clubs  for  boys  and  girls, 
kindergartens  for  little  children,  civic  societies  for  a 
study  for  American  citizenship,  and  all  kindred  or- 
ganizations. Around  the  Church  will  center  every  in- 
fluence that  will  make  men  and  women  better  Chris- 
tians and  better  fitted  to  take  up  the  various  respon- 
sibilities of  American  citizens.  An  illuminating  illus- 
tration of  what  may  thus  be  accomplished  is  to  be 
found  in  The  Labor  Temple  in  New  York,  described 
in  the  chapter  on  **City  Missions." 

Largely  out  of  the  stimulus  of  the  Labor  Temple 
has  grown  the  Board's  Department  of  Immigration. 
It  is  thoroughly  equipped  for  surveys  and  for  actual 
service  of  the  immigrants  along  various  lines.  Either 
by  its  own  initiative  or  aiding  the  enterprises  of  synods 
it  has  touched  the  foreigners  of  eleven  different  lan- 
guages, commissioned  during  the  year  1917-1918  one 
hundred  three  ministers,  lay  workers  and  visitors,  has 
organized  or  aided  one  hundred  fifteen  churches  and 
stations  having  a  church  membership  of  4,463  and  a 
Sunday-school  membership  of  8,633  in  twenty-one 
states  of  the  Union.     We  give  herewith  the  report 


142  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

of  the  Department  to  the  General  Assembly  of  1918: 
Scope  of  the  Department's  Work.  "The  Board's 
first  effort  is  to  maintain  contact  with  the  whole  broad 
field  of  immigrant  community  life  in  this  country  and 
with  conditions  at  the  source  of  immigration.  A  li- 
brary of  books,  pamphlets,  reports,  clippings  and  sur- 
veys is  maintained.  Much  of  this  information  is  se- 
cured at  first  hand  through  such  surveys  as  that  re^ 
cently  made  in  Lackawanna,  the  steel  center,  for  the 
Presbytery  of  Buffalo,  and  of  conditions  in  the  rural 
Bohemian  communities  of  Texas.  A  card  catalogue 
recording  the  progress  of  all  Presbyterian  churches 
and  missions  employing  a  foreign  language  has  been 
kept  for  a  number  of  year.  Also,  a  catalogue  of  all 
Presbyterian  ministers  employing  a  foreign  language. 
The  Board's  City  and  Immigrant  Work  office  is  thus 
a  headquarters  and  clearing  house  for  information 
concerning  immigrant  communities,  immigrant  races 
and  the  work  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  The 
Board's  director  of  City  and  Immigrant  Work  is  also 
Chairman  of  the  City  and  Immigrant  Work  Commit- 
tee of  the  Home  Missions  Council,  which  federates  the 
interest  of  twenty-one  denominations.  Through  this 
committee  cooperation  has  been  extended  in  studies  of 
the  religious  conditions  among  the  Poles,  Italians  and 
Bohemians  in  America.  At  every  stage  the  Board's 
work  among  immigrants  is  developed  in  conference 
with  other  denominations.  A  late  illustration  is  in  the 
organization  of  a  federation  of  churches  and  mission 
agencies  in  the  great  steel  center  about  Gary  and 
Hammond  in  Northern  Indiana  and  known  as  the 
Calumet  region.  Through  this  federation,  which  is 
actively  supported  by  the  Synod  of  Indiana  and  the 


IMMIGRATION  143 

Board,  it  is  proposed  to  attack  in  a  big  way  the  social 
and  religious  problems  of  an  industrial  community  of 
one  hundred  fifty  thousand  souls,  one  hundred  thou- 
sand of  whom  have  no  active  relation  to  the  Church, 
; — Protestant,  Roman,  Orthodox  or  Jewish. 

"On  the  field,  the  Board's  contact  with  the  immi- 
grant is  through  churches,  community  centers  or  set- 
tlements. This  work  is  administered  by  Synodical  or 
Presbyterial  committees  with  the  Board's  cooperation, 
or  in  an  increasing  number  of  fields  directly  by  the 
Board  for  a  limited  period  of  years.  Of  the  total  dis- 
bursements for  Immigrant  Work  in  the  current  year 
approximating  eighty-six  thousand  dollars  (not  in- 
cluding headquarters  expense),  nearly  three-fourths 
(seventy -three  per  cent.)  is  distributed  in  twenty 
cities  from  Boston  to  San  Francisco ;  sixteen  per  cent, 
is  for  work  in  four  iron  and  coal  mining  regions  in 
Kansas,  Wisconsin,  Michigan  and  Minnesota;  nine 
per  cent,  is  for  work  in  rural  communities,  among  Bo- 
hemians in  Texas  and  the  Central  West,  and  in  an 
Armenian  colony  in  a  fruit-growing  region  of  Cali- 
fornia; the  remaining  two  per  cent,  is  for  general 
propaganda,  including  the  promotion  of  Daily  Vaca- 
tion Bible  Schools  and  a  specific  propaganda  among 
the  three  million  Poles  of  America." 

Interdenominational  Relationship.  Interdenomi- 
national relations  of  the  immigrant  question  deserve 
to  be  considered.  That  question  cannot  be  solved  de- 
nominationally. It  is  so  interlaced  with  all  educa- 
tional, moral  and  civic  interests  that  only  a  combina- 
tion of  communions  in  a  common  and  united  service 
can  adequately  overtake  it.    This  service  cannot  most 


144  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

effectively  be  rendered  by  what  are  called  union 
churches  or  missions.  Each  body  must  pursue  this 
work  along  its  own  peculiar  lines.  Chiefly  on  three 
lines  can  the  best  results  of  union  effort  be  secured. 

One  of  these  is  by  assigning  immigrants  of  foreign 
nationalities  to  the  different  denominations.  This, 
however,  encounters  the  difficulty  that  nearly  all  the 
larger  Christian  bodies  have  already  instituted  work 
among  many  different  racial  groups,  often  in  a  small 
way  to  be  sure,  but  even  so,  difficult  to  surrender. 

United  Survey.  The  second  sphere  for  combined 
service  is,  however,  at  once  practicable  and  of  prime 
importance  for  all  economical  and  successful  under- 
takings. That  is,  a  united  survey  of  the  entire  field, 
giving  all  the  facts  necessary  for  intelligent  action  and 
suggesting  ways  for  making  such  action  effective.  It 
is  to  this  need  that  the  Home  Missions  Council  is  ad- 
dressing its  consideration  of  immigration.  During  the 
year  191 7  it  made  several  surveys  of  racial  immigrant 
groups  in  America  through  its  Immigration  Commit- 
tee. The  most  significant  contribution  was  that  made 
by  Professor  Antonio  Mangano's  survey  of  the  Italian 
communities  published  under  the  title  of  "Religious 
work  Among  Italians  in  America."  The  studies  thus 
made  by  extensive  journeys  through  eastern,  western 
and  southern  states  furnished  the  material  of  his  valu- 
able book  "Sons  of  Italy"  which,  published  by  the 
Missionary  Education  Movement,  has  been  the  home 
mission  study  book  of  1917-1918.  The  Rev.  Kenneth 
D.  Miller,  who  held  one  of  the  Fellowships  of  the 
Home  Board,  continued  his  studies  of  "Bohemian 
Communities  in  America."  When  these  and  other 
contemplated  surveys  shall  have  been  completed  all 


IMMIGRATION  145 

the  Protestant  forces  will  have  at  hand  the  material 
for  an  intelligent  and,  so  far  as  practicable,  united  ad- 
vance on  the  immigrant  problem. 

Ports  of  Entry.  The  third  phase  of  activity  ap- 
propriate for  the  Home  Missions  Council,  and  in 
which  entire  denominational  cooperation  is  not  only 
practicable  but  demanded,  is  work  among  immigrants 
at  the  various  ports  of  entry.  This  was  undertaken  in 
January,  191 5.  The  Rev.  Joseph  E.  Perry,  Ph.D.,  was 
made  its  superintendent.  He  visited  the  various  ports 
from  Boston  to  Galveston  and  reported  on  the  moral 
and  religious  condition  and  needs  of  the  immigrant 
population  entering  those  gates.  The  information 
gained  revealed  the  fact  that  the  zeal  of  various  Mis- 
sion Boards  had  introduced  overlapping  and  in  some 
cases  confusion.  For  example,  at  Ellis  Island,  the 
chief  port  of  entry,  there  were  found  so  many  mission- 
aries of  different  communions,  and  so  many  that  were 
independent  and  in  a  measure  irresponsible,  that  some 
radical  action  was  necessary.  The  Government  also 
called  attention  to  this  undesirable  state  of  affairs. 

After  earnest  consideration  of  the  situation,  the 
Joint  Committee  on  Immigration  for  the  Home  Mis- 
sions Council  and  the  Council  of  Women  for  Home 
Missions  was  instrumental  in  setting  up  a  federation 
of  Protestant  organizations  to  secure  some  genuine 
coordination  of  missionary  effort, — the  General  Com- 
mittee for  Protestant  Missionary  Work  at  Ellis  Island. 
In  the  midst  of  its  investigations  and  plans  an  order 
came  from  Washington  that  on  account  of  war  con- 
ditions the  missionary  force  must  be  reduced  to  seven 
workers. 
10 


146  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

This  abridgment  of  the  missionary  force  in  service 
at  the  Island  has  brought  to  pass  a  codrdination  of 
effort  which  had  not  been  known  before.  Representa- 
tives of  the  Hebrew  and  Roman  Catholic  organizations 
have  been  meeting  with  the  General  Committee  and 
relief  work  has  been  planned  without  sectarian  or 
racial  basis.  A  budget  has  been  prepared  covering  the 
entire  amount  of  probable  relief  necessary  per  month, 
to  which  definite  and  pledged  contributions  are  being 
made  by  two  Jewish,  one  Catholic  and  at  least  three 
Protestant  organizations. 

The  present  status  of  the  Board's  immigrant  work  is 
indicated  by  the  statement  that  it  has  one  hundred 
three  commissioned  ministers  and  lay  workers  giving 
the  gospel  in  eleven  different  languages  in  one  hundred 
fifteen  churches  and  stations  in  twenty-one  states  of 
the  Union.  The  immigration  from  southeastern 
Europe  has  been  practically  cut  off  during  the  last  four 
years.  The  War  having  ended  there  can  be  no  doubt 
the  immigration  problem  in  America  will  spring  to 
such  proportions  as  will  tax  to  the  utmost  the  con- 
secration and  resources  of  the  Church. 

Woman's  Board.  An  account  of  the  work  among 
immigrants  would  be  far  from  complete  if  it  gave  no 
records  of  what  the  Woman's  Board  has  accomplished 
during  the  past  six  years.  In  191 3  that  Board  took 
action  as  follows : 

"As  the  work  needed  among  immigrant  populations 
has  phases  that  can  scarcely  be  met  locally,  or  even 
synodically,  the  Woman's  Board  feels  that  it  should 
act  as  direct  agent  in  the  following  forms  of  service : 


IMMIGRATION  147 

"The  training  of  women  for  service  in  immigrant 
communities,  both  as  foreign-speaking  visitors  and  di- 
rectors of  reHglous,  social  and  educational  work." 

To  make  this  action  effective  the  Board  in  February, 
1919,  decided  to  establish  not  less  than  ten  Fellowships 
of  two  hundred  fifty  dollars  a  year  to  be  given  to 
young  women,  preferably  college  graduates,  who  shall 
pursue  a  course  of  training  to  fit  them  for  leadership 
in  work  for  immigrants.  This  action  looks  forward 
to  service  similar  to  that  arranged  for  by  the  Board 
of  Home  Missions  in  establishing  its  Fellowships  for 
theological  students.  In  accordance  with  its  plan  to 
cooperate  with  synods  and  presbyteries  in  their  for- 
eign work  the  Woman's  Board  carries  on  school  and 
community  work  in  thirty-five  presbyteries  among 
Italians,  Bohemians,  Slavs,  Russian  Poles  and  Mex- 
icans. The  Woman's  Board  receives  and  returns  con- 
tributions for  this  work,  giving  credit  for  the  amounts 
from  societies  sending  their  immigrant  funds  through 
the  Board's  treasury. 

Czecho-Slovaks.  For  both  Boards  the  War  has 
precipitated  a  new  responsibility  on  the  American 
Church.  And  that  not  only — perhaps  not  mainly — that 
we  will  have  enlarged  immigration  of  foreigners  in 
the  near  future ;  but  rather  by  the  fact  that  the  War 
has  given  a  new  meaning  to  Americanism  to  foreigners 
at  home  and  in  this  country.  A  wave  of  popular  in- 
terest in  America  and  that  for  which  she  stands  has 
swept  over  the  world.  A  striking  illustration  of  what 
it  means  to  foreigners  is  given  by  Dr.  Vincent  Pisek 
in  his  account  of  the  Czecho-Slovaks.  He  says  for 
generations  they  have  loved  America  and  regarded  it 
as  the  home  and  hope  of  liberty.    Before  they  came  to 


148  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

this  country  they  looked  upon  the  American  Republic 
as  the  ideal  Government  and  "in  their  national  festivi- 
ties along  with  their  own  flag  they  would  carry  the 
Stars  and  Stripes," — the  "Flag  of  Freedom"  as  they 
fondly  called  it,  "for  all  the  ideals  and  principles 
which  the  American  flag  represents  have  been  dear  to 
the  heart  of  the  Czech  for  centuries." 

But  how  dearer  now.  They  are  achieving  their  own 
freedom.  When  we  entered  the  War  their  joy  was 
unbounded  and  many  of  them  joined  our  colors.  And 
now  they  are  trying  to  build  a  republic  on  the  model 
they  have  learned  from  us.  What  an  obligation  it 
puts  on  us  to  give  them  our  best !  We  must  send  them 
our  Czech-Slovak  missionaries,  or  American  mission- 
aries trained  for  that  service,  as  contemplated  by  the 
two  Boards  in  their  plans  for  immigration  Fellowships. 

Jewish  Evangelization.  The  Board  at  its  meeting 
in  April,  1918,  heartily  approved  the  recommendations 
of  its  Executive  Council,  looking  to  the  organization 
of  a  National  Advisory  Committee  on  Jewish  Evan- 
gelization in  accordance  with  the  instruction  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  1917;  the  authorization  of  a 
program  of  itinerant  evangelism  and  education  in  be- 
half of  the  Jews  in  America ;  and  the  establishment  of 
a  work  in  the  Jewish  community  of  Newark  and  in 
similar  communities  in  other  cities  as  soon  as  the  way 
was  made  clear.  The  Rev.  H.  L.  Hellyer,  a  graduate 
of  Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  and  the  Rev.  E. 
S.  Greenbaum,  a  graduate  of  McCormick  Theological 
Seminary,  were  engaged  by  the  Board  for  this  service. 

They  submit  the  following  brief  summary  of  their 
activities  from  July  to  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year: 


IMMIGRATION  149 

"November  21,  1918,  the  Advisory  Committee  on 
Jewish  EvangeHzation  was  constituted  with  a  repre- 
sentation of  19  ministers  and  laymen  from  the  Presby- 
teries of  Chicago,  Pittsburgh,  Philadelphia,  Elizabeth, 
Newark,  New  Brunswick  and  New  York.  The  Rev. 
Prof.  Charles  R.  Erdman,  of  Princeton,  was  elected 
Chairman.  The  entire  day  was  devoted  to  the  consid- 
eration and  discussion  of  the  many  problems  inhering 
in  the  work  of  Jewish  Evangelization  in  America. 
Under  the  direction  of  this  Advisory  Committee,  a  cir- 
cular letter  was  sent  out  to  about  1,500  pastors  bring- 
ing to  their  attention  this  field  and  the  Board's  pur- 
pose. A  number  of  outdoor  services  were  held  in  the 
summer  months  in  Newark,  Atlantic  City  and  else- 
where. Large  groups  of  Jews  thus  heard  the  claims 
of  the  Gospel  in  the  Yiddish  language.  Educational 
conferences  in  churches  and  other  places  were  held, 
concerning  the  social  and  religious  needs  of  the  3,- 
500,000  Jews  in  America.  A  considerable  part  of  the 
time  was  spent  in  the  actual  preaching  of  the  Gospel 
to  the  Jews,  distributing  literature,  in  visitation  and 
personal  interview.  Ten  thousand  portions  of  scrip- 
ture, religious  tracts  and  booklets  were  distributed. 
Several  tracts,  especially  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the 
modern  Jew,  were  written  and  translated  from  Eng- 
lish into  Yiddish  as  well  as  from  Yiddish  into  Eng- 
lish. One  hundred  eighty-nine  meetings  were  held  or 
addressed  in  the  first  six  months  of  this  propaganda." 


VIII 
CITY  MISSIONS  AND   SOCIAL  SERVICE 

CITY  MISSIONS.  Since  the  beginning  of  the 
century  home  missions  have  tended  strongly 
toward  speciaHzation,  following  in  this  the 
general  trend  of  accepted  scientific  thought.  In  past 
generations  the  evangelization  of  the  country  has  been 
an  aim  expressed  chiefly  in  terms  of  the  occupation  of 
territory.  It  has  been  an  endeavor  to  catch  up  with 
the  moving  western  frontier.  Now  that  the  geograph- 
ical frontier  has  been  drowned  in  the  Pacific  Ocean 
the  missionary  thought  has  turned  toward  conges- 
tions of  populations  far  this  side  of  the  frontier. 

The  wave  of  missionary  interest  has  swung  back 
over  fields  that  had  been  occupied  but  not  conquered, 
new  fields  emerging  with  startling  rapidity  out  of 
changed  conditions. 

New  Conditions.  The  old  form  of  home  missions, 
in  which  the  salvation  of  individuals  and  the  organi- 
zation of  new  churches  bulked  preeminent,  still  ob- 
tains, for  still  there  are  new  and  unchurched  commun- 
ties.  A  survey  of  western  conditions  conducted  in 
1910  by  the  Home  Missions  Council  made  this  start- 
lingly  evident.  In  the  very  near  future  frontier  life 
will  come  to  new  demands  on  church  forces  for  two 
reasons. 

First,  the  return  of  millions  of  soldiers  for  whom 
new  opportunities  of  industrial  life  will  be  demanded. 

150 


CITY  MISSIONS  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE  151 

The  Government  is  already  making  plans  for  more 
intensive  rural  life  which  will  throw  back  the  frontier 
into  central  regions  of  the  country.  Plans  of  irriga- 
tion far  beyond  anything  we  have  known  will  yield 
rich  returns  for  new  settlers,  and  forests  and  mines 
will  disclose  their  bounties  to  a  hardy  population.  The 
home  missions  of  a  generation  ago  is  coming  to  the 
front  again. 

Second,  clear  missionary  insight  shows  us  new 
phases  of  the  Christian  adventure  in  both  city  and 
country.  Specific  fields  call  for  specific  treatment.  To 
neglect  them  were  to  imperil  much  of  the  missionary 
work  of  the  past  century.  They  have  risen  out  of  the 
new  movements  of  populations  and  the  new  conditions 
around  them.  Problems  have  emerged,  considered  in 
this  and  following  chapters,  for  the  solution  of  which 
early  forms  of  the  home  mission  service  may  be  in- 
adequate. 

Specialists.  And  a  new  form  of  leadership  is  de- 
manded. "The  general  practitioner"  still  is  needed  in 
missions  as  in  medicine.  But  besides,  the  country  calls 
for  men  trained  and  fitted  by  natural  endowments  for 
special  and  perhaps  untried  service.  For  example, 
the  evangelist  who  can  gather  a  church  on  the  prairies 
may  not  be  fitted  to  solve  the  immigration  problem 
or  the  country  Hfe  problem  in  its  modern  relations,  or 
the  city  problem  in  its  complicated  reactions.  The 
schools  of  the  prophets  now  must  train  men  to  the 
specialties  of  missionary  service.  Of  course,  the  spe- 
cialist must  have  many  of  the  qualifications  of  the 
general  practitioner.  Certain  elements  are  common 
to  all  missionary  work.  A  personal  message  and  per- 
sonal service  are  fundamental  and  common, 


152  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

But  conditions  may  so  vary  as  to  constitute  a  de- 
mand for  a  practically  new  enterprise.  Under  cer- 
tain circumstances  the  enterprise  becomes  a  problem. 
Dry  farming  in  the  West  differs  from  surface  farming 
chiefly  in  going  deeper  down.  Intensive  farming 
differs  from  extensive  farming  in  recognizing  certain 
scientific  factors  not  so  readily  discerned.  The  home 
missions  which  shall  be  adequate  to  meet  the  needs  of 
a  complex  national  life  must  go  deeper  than  the  sur- 
face and  must  match  new  and  dangerous,  or  inviting, 
conditions  by  newer  and  more  scientific  Christian  ex- 
pedients. Hence,  new  departments  have  been  added 
to  the  equipment  of  mission  Boards  to  enable  them  to 
do  this  work — more  difficult,  but  yielding  abundant 
fruit. 

The  Board  of  Home  Missions  in  1903  recognized 
the  new  occasions  which  teach  the  new  duties  and  be- 
gan to  organize  departments  for  lines  of  work  which 
had  not  up  to  that  time  challenged  serious  attention. 
Of  course,  country  work  had  been  older  than  the 
Board,  but  the  different  rural  populations  and  condi- 
tions of  to-day  called  for  special  treatment.  This  was 
offered  through  the  Department  of  Church  and  Coun- 
try Life.  Also,  work  among  foreigners  had  been  as 
old  as  the  incoming  of  the  first  European  migrations. 
But  radical  immigration  changes  demanded  new  forms 
of  Christian  activity.  So  the  Department  of  Immigra- 
tion began  to  function.  The  American  city,  its  mar- 
vellous growth  and,  far  above  all,  its  cosmopolitan 
character — cosmopolitan  in  a  sense  and  to  an  extent 
which  to  thoughtful  people  spelled  a  national  peril — 
challenged  attention.  And  so  the  Department  of  City 
Work  came  into  being. 


CITY  MISSIONS  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE  153 

The  Board  in  heeding  these  calls  has  not  forgotten 
the  call  of  its  original  charter.  With  ever  increasing 
zeal  it  has  followed  the  steps  of  the  pioneer.  But  to 
the  historic  line  it  has  added  the  new  methods  which 
the  new  day  required. 

Difficulties.  Many  factors  which  are  new  and 
difficult  enter  into  the  work  of  missions  in  our  cities. 
First,  of  course,  is  the  rapid  increase  of  city  popula- 
tion. Nearly  one-half  of  our  population  is  found  in 
twenty-five  hundred  cities.  In  the  decade  1900-1910 
the  cities  grew  three  times  as  fast  as  the  country. 
This  fact  would  not  of  itself  have  special  significance. 
If  it  were  merely  a  question  of  evangelization  and 
church  building  along  old  lines  the  problem  would  be 
solved  by  increasing  in  adequate  measure  the  number 
of  messengers  and  of  churches.  But  the  conditions  of 
urban  life  pile  up  the  difficulties. 

Among  them  the  following  should  be  noted.  Our 
great  cities  are  masses  of  wandering,  and  so,  home- 
less population.  The  vast  majority  have  no  settled 
residence.  Less  than  six  per  cent,  of  New  York 
people  own  the  houses  they  live  in.  That  anchor  for 
good  fortune  and  comfortable  living,  easily  obtained  in 
the  country,  is  absent  from  the  city.  Moral  storms 
master  unanchored  populations. 

The  perils  of  homelessness  are  vastly  increased  by 
the  overcrowding  which  is  another  of  the  city's  perils. 
Not  only  are  the  crowds  moving  crowds;  they  live 
under  trying  conditions  which  reflect  on  health  and 
character  alike.  Country  people  find  moral  support 
in  the  lives  of  neighbors.  People  in  established  homes 
supply  moral  tone.     Homeless  city  people  have  no 


154  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

neighbors.     Like  branches  unattached  to  roots  they 
are  at  the  mercy  of  any  storm  that  blows. 

Again,  cities  are  badly  governed.  This  is  a  notori- 
ous and  acknowledged  fact.  It  is  also  a  warning  fact. 
It  works  for  crime  and  so  for  low  morals. 

Again,  cities  include  varieties  of  nationalities  which 
suggest  at  once  the  perils  of  massed  peoples  and  the 
difficulties  of  Christian  work  on  their  behalf.  Thus,  in 
the  Presbytery  of  New  York  eighty  per  cent,  of  the 
population  are  foreigners  and  their  children.  And 
they  represent  forty  nationalities.  Most  of  them  come 
from  southeastern  Europe.  Their  ideals  and  stan- 
dards of  life  differ  vastly  from  those  of  American  line- 
age. Their  variety  of  tongues,  habits  and  character- 
istics makes  good  work  among  them  possible  only  to  a 
Church  that  is  most  unusually  equipped  and  under 
leadership  most  unusually  prepared.  Of  the  prepara- 
tion required  by  those  who  would  lead  these  people 
out  into  true  American  life  later  mention  will  be  made. 
It  is  noted  here  only  to  emphasize  one  of  the  difficul- 
ties of  city  evangelization. 

And  yet  over  against  these  difficulties  a  wise  view 
of  the  work  will  set  certain  advantages  and  helps 
which  the  city  affords  and  which  should  keep  the 
workers  above  discouragement.  Dr.  H.  Paul  Doug- 
lass in  his  informing  book  on  "New  Home  Missions" 
summarizes  these  as  follows : 

Advantages.  "Cities,  with  all  their  bad  govern- 
ments, do  work  for  good  sanitation — and  so  good 
health,  for  remunerative  employment,  for  good  schools 
and  social  advantages,  and  latterly  for  care  of  the 
lives  and  occupations  of  children," 


CITY  MISSIONS  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE  155 

It  is  the  sphere  of  the  city  mission  work  to  make 
the  most  of  these  advantages,  to  use  them  as  levers  of 
help  in  the  spiritual  uplift  of  the  people.  It  is  the 
province  of  the  gospel  wisely  applied  to  infuse  into 
populations,  crowded  and  largely  homeless  and  iso- 
lated, those  Christian  motives,  ideals  and  opportuni- 
ties which  alone  can  meet  and  overcome  the  moral  and 
spiritual  perils  of  overcrowding  and  homelessness  and 
suppressed  individual  life  with  all  the  temptations  that 
come  in  their  train. 

By  what  methods  and  with  what  success  has  the 
Board  of  Home  Missions  striven  to  meet  its  respon- 
sibility for  city  evangelization?  This  may  best  be 
illustrated  by  giving  brief  accounts  of  its  service  in 
two  representative  cities, — one  on  the  Atlantic  Coast, 
the  other  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

New  York.  For  many  generations  the  rapid  growth 
of  New  York  has  forced  the  attention  of  the  Church. 
To  keep  pace  with  the  advance  in  population  has  been 
its  steady  ambition.  In  the  early  years  this  aim  was 
measurably  attained.  Churches  grew  to  strength  in 
the  comfortable  surroundings  of  settled  populations. 
With  changing  times,  changed  and  discouraging  con- 
ditions appeared.  The  relatively  homogeneous  popu- 
lation was  supplemented  by  one  so  heterogeneous  as  to 
include  peoples  from  all  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Then 
the  struggle  began  with  the  odds  heavily  against  the 
Church. 

Within  the  bounds  of  the  Presbytery  of  New  York, 
in  a  population  of  something  over  three  million,  there 
are  more  than  a  million  Jews,  more  than  a  million 
and  a  half  Roman  Catholics,  and  only  about  half  a 
million  as  the  field  of  the  Protestant  Churches.    For 


156  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

many  years  the  Churches  struggled  with  the  move- 
ment of  people  that  left  them  stranded.  The  Church 
was  in  retreat.  In  a  single  decade  six  Presbyterian 
Churches  below  Fourteenth  Street  gave  up  the  fight. 
Reliable  statistics  show  that  whereas  in  1866  there 
were  138  Protestant  Churches  below  Fourteenth 
Street,  there  are  now  only  51,  and  that  whereas  in 
1866  there  were  20  synagogues,  there  are  now  71. 

As  these  and  other  similar  figures  came  into  view 
the  churches  of  all  communions  took  alarm.  The 
Board  of  Home  Missions  strove  to  meet  the  situation. 
Both  men  and  money  were  lacking.  When  in  1909  it 
was  announced  that  Mr.  John  S.  Kennedy  had  left  to 
the  Presbytery  a  fund  of  nearly  two  million  dollars 
for  Presbyterian  mission  work  in  New  York,  both  the 
Board  and  the  Presbytery  entered  enthusiastically  on 
large  plans  for  a  Presbyterian  advance,  directing  their 
energies  specially  to  the  uptown  districts  full  of  people 
and  without  adequate  church  privileges  of  any  kind. 

Church  Extension  Committee.  The  Church  be- 
fore this  had  not  wholly  failed  in  its  missionary  re- 
sponsibility to  the  city.  Missions  were  sustained  by 
the  strong  Churches  in  various  needy  sections.  But 
up  to  the  time  when  the  Home  Board  and  the  Presby- 
tery entered  on  their  joint  work  there  had  been  no 
united  and  organized  plans  for  overtaking  the  enor- 
mous task.  The  Church  Extension  Committee  of  the 
presbytery  was  organized  in  1900.  Its  charter  com- 
prised two  objects — the  planting  of  new  churches  and 
giving  them  support  till  strong  enough  to  care  for 
themselves.  It  gradually  enlarged  its  vision  and  its 
plans. 


CITY  MISSIONS  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE  157 

Labor  Temple.  At  this  time  the  Home  Board 
opened  the  Labor  Temple  at  Fourteenth  Street  and 
Second  Avenue  in  the  property  of  one  of  the  Presby- 
terian churches  that  had  been  depleted  by  the  uptown 
movement.  In  the  support  of  this  enterprise  the  Home 
Board  and  the  Home  Mission  Committee  of  the  Pres- 
bytery united  and  the  Rev.  Charles  Stelzle,  by  sym- 
pathies, training  and  experience  specially  fitted,  be- 
came the  superintendent.  The  population  of  the  dis- 
trict so  occupied  is  more  than  half  a  million  and 
made  up  of  a  vast  variety  of  peoples,  the  foreign  ele- 
ment predominating. 

The  aims  of  the  Temple  were  to  bring  the  gospel 
message  to  the  people  of  every  class  and  language  and 
with  a  wide  social  work  to  imbue  a  non-Christian  com- 
munity with  the  spirit  of  Christ  in  all  life's  relations. 
The  approach  to  the  community  was  by  the  familiar 
church  activities  and,  in  addition,  by  lectures,  discus- 
sions and  forums  in  which  the  workers  would  get  the 
reaction  of  the  people  they  were  trying  to  reach. 

As  the  attendance  of  people  from  a  wide  range  of 
nationalities  increased  it  became  necessary  to  special- 
ize for  immigrant  service.  So  leaders  were  secured 
for  groups  in  Russian,  Ruthenian,  Hungarian  and 
Italian  as  well  as  English.  For  a  time  this  large  and 
varied  program  was  misunderstood  and  so  encoun- 
tered opposition.  But  as  the  good  fruits  began  to  ap- 
pear opposition  died.  Those  who  thought  the  move- 
ment secular  and  not  spiritual  were  silenced  when  in 
191 5  "The  American  International  Presbyterian 
Church"  was  organized,  composed  of  a  large  mem- 
bership with  an  elder  and  deacon  from  each  of  the 


158  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

foreign  groups  named,  constituting  with  the  pastor  the 
official  staff. 

The  church  in  1918  had  a  membership  of  five  hun- 
dred ninety-six  and  is  exerting  a  large  influence  on  the 
social  and  industrial  life  of  the  great  community. 

The  Labor  Temple  was  established  by  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions  through  its  Bureau  of  Social  Service, 
a  further  account  of  whose  activities  appears  farther 
on.  Not  every  place  where  there  are  foreigners  can 
have  such  a  Temple.  Not  every  community  needs  one. 
But  every  immigration  center  gives  the  same  chance 
to  interpret  to  hungry  souls  the  gospel  which  has  the 
promise  of  the  life  that  now  is  and  of  that  which  is 
to  come. 

American  Parish.  Another  illustration  of  a  new 
method  of  missionary  activity  in  New  York  is  the 
American  Parish  in  the  upper  part  of  the  city,  sup- 
ported jointly  by  Presbytery's  Home  Mission  Com- 
mittee and  the  Board.  The  year  191 1  found  the  Pres- 
bytery in  charge  of  four  mission  churches  on  the  upper 
East  Side.  One  of  these  churches  is  English-speak- 
ing, one  Hungarian  and  two  Italian.  There  is  a  board 
of  pastors  and  workers,  of  which  the  pastor  of  the 
American  Church  is  the  Chairman.  These  churches, 
thus  federated,  are  working  together  in  perfect  ac- 
cord and  sympathy  to  meet  all  the  varied  needs — so- 
cial, civic  and  spiritual — of  the  varied  population. 

This  experiment  of  church  federation  across  racial 
lines  is  yet  in  its  earlier  stage,  but  bears  every  mark 
of  being  a  permanent  success  in  Americanization  and 
a  lesson  to  other  communities  similarly  situated. 

Thirty-one  churches  and  missions  were  aided  by  the 
Church  Extension  and  Home  Missions  Committee  of 


CITY  MISSIONS  AND  SOCIAI,  SERVICE  159 

New  York  Presbytery  and  the  Home  Board  in  1918 
at  a  cost  of  $150,104.38,  including  buildings. 

The  plan  of  the  Committees  in  the  handling  of  this 
large  trust  includes,  according  to  the  published  outline 
of  policy,  a  careful  study  of  the  field,  the  widest  pos- 
sible Christian  service  to  the  community  combined 
with  an  earnest  ministry  to  each  individual  soul  in  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  cooperation  with  all  possible  agencies 
making  for  social  righteousness  and  personal  salva- 
tion, the  fearless  presentation  to  our  immigrant  and 
industrial  communities  of  a  positive  uncontroversial 
message,  the  combination  of  foreign  and  American 
leadership,  and  adaptation  of  method  to  particular 
fields. 

Inasmuch  as  the  home  mission  problem  is  essen- 
tially one,  no  matter  by  what  communion  undertaken, 
a  coordination  of  effort  of  the  various  bodies  is  af- 
forded in  a  City  Missions  Council  in  which  represen- 
tatives of  these  bodies  unite  to  consider  the  common 
task  and  plan  for  its  accomplishment.  The  Council 
consists  of  ten  denominations.  Its  functions  are  ad- 
visory, but  its  brief  experience  is  proving  the  value 
of  general  plans  and  coordinated  efforts. 

San  Francisco.  The  other  illustration  of  city  mis- 
sion work  will  be  taken  from  the  Pacific  Coast.  After 
the  fire  which  devastated  San  Francisco  there  was  a 
great  shifting  of  population.  A  quarter  of  a  million 
people  were  thrown  out  of  their  homes.  Multitudes  of 
them  crossed  the  Bay  to  new  homes  on  its  east  side. 
Some  of  the  city  churches  which  had  been  prospering 
and  strong  became  home  mission  problems.  When  the 
churches  had  time  to  look  around  and  get  their  bear- 
ings the  two  Presbyteries,  San  Francisco  and  Oak- 


i6o  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

land,  were  confronted  with  what  for  a  time  seemed  a 
hopeless  problem.  Prayerful  consideration  of  the 
common  needs  finally  resulted  in  the  conviction  that 
the  Bay  could  not  divide  the  religious  interests  and 
that  the  situation  could  be  adequately  met  only  by  a 
united  attack  on  the  moral  and  religious  needs  of  what 
is  in  reality  one  city.    The  two  Presbyteries  united. 

The  Board  of  Home  Missions  was  consulted  and 
entered  heartily  into  the  project.  The  first  step  was  to 
know  the  religious  conditions  of  these  affiliated  cities 
— San  Francisco,  Oakland,  Berkeley  and  Alameda.  A 
thorough  survey  must  be  undertaken.  The  Rev.  Wil- 
liam P.  Shriver,  D.D.,  Director  of  City  and  Immigrant 
Work,  was  sent  to  make  a  survey  and  to  formulate  a 
program.  It  required  six  arduous  months.  A  strong 
Church  Extension  Board  was  organized  to  cooperate 
in  the  advance  movements  planned  by  the  Board  and 
the  Presbytery. 

After  the  canvass  made  by  Dr.  Shriver  all  con- 
cerned saw  clearly  the  program  that  must  be  adopted. 
The  Rev.  Robert  S.  Donaldson,  D.D.,  of  Milwaukee, 
was  called  as  Executive  Secretary.  An  initial  step 
was  to  interest  the  churches  in  Daily  Vacation  Bible 
Schools  for  the  children.  The  conditions  of  the 
churches  stranded  by  changes  of  population  was  next 
considered.  On  both  sides  of  the  Bay  a  force  of 
workers  was  engaged  to  stimulate  these  churches 
along  various  lines  of  activity — social  and  evangelistic. 
The  work  among  foreign  communities  was  ener- 
getically promoted.  Chinese,  Japanese,  Russians  and 
Italians  had  the  message  of  the  gospel. 

One  who  reports  the  quickening  effect  of  under- 
taking a  big  task  by  comprehensive  plans  speaks  thus : 


CITY  MISSIONS  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE  i6i 

"Among  Presbyterians  of  this  region  there  was  a 
feehng  of  isolation,  of  being  forgotten  by  the  great 
Mother  Church.  Now  all  this  is  changed.  Work  is 
planned  and  accomplished  in  a  new  spirit  of  hope  and 
courage  and  with  large  success.  The  old  feeling  of 
depression  has  given  way  to  a  happy  Christian  op- 
timism. The  members  of  the  Presbytery  feel  the  great 
heart-beat  of  the  whole  Church  and  the  support  of  its 
helping  hand.  The  spirit  of  Christian  fraternity  is  one 
of  the  most  pronounced  results  of  having  a  great  and 
common  task." 

Other  Cities.  We  have  touched  on  these  two  cities 
only  as  illustrative  of  a  new  day,  dawning  in  many 
of  our  cities,  of  inspiring  missionary  progress.  It  is 
not  possible  to  name  them  all,  but  passing  mention 
should  be  made  of  Baltimore,  with  its  far-reaching 
plans  for  immigrants ;  of  Pittsburgh  and  Philadelphia 
and  Cleveland,  with  their  industrial  problems ;  of  Chi- 
cago, with  its  overwhelming  problem  of  a  vast  variety 
of  foreigners,  and  of  St.  Louis,  awaking  to  a  new 
sense  of  its  communal  responsibilities.  In  these  and 
other  cities  there  are  strong  Church  Extension  Boards 
with  large  vision  and  large  resources  and  indomitable 
courage  to  redeem  our  cities  from  the  curses  of  bad 
government,  bad  industrial  and  home  conditions  and 
ineffective  alignment  of  Christian  forces. 

This  subject  bears  heavily,  in  this  time  of  general 
world  reconstruction,  on  the  attention  and  sympathies 
of  the  Christian  Church.  In  September,  1908,  a  con- 
ference of  representatives  from  the  self-sustaining 
synods  with  the  Home  Board  gave  consideration  to  the 
place  of  the  city  and  city  church  extension  movements 
in  the  New  Era.  A  tentative  statement  of  principles 
II 


i62  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

and  policies  was  outlined  as  giving  the  general  scheme 
of  City  Missions  which  might  profitably  be  followed. 
It  is  planned  for  cities  of  one  hundred  thousand  and 
more  and  is  presented  here  as  aims  for  church  exten- 
sion in  such  cities  which  may  suggest  at  least  the  main 
lines  of  advance.    It  is  as  follows : 

Principles  and  Policies,  i.  The  promoting  of  a 
consciousness  of  unity  among  the  Presbyterian 
churches  and  a  common  purpose  for  a  city-wide  pro- 
gram of  evangelism,  religious  education  and  service, 
directed  from  a  central  administrative  headquarters 
with  adequate  resources  supplied  by  all  churches  in 
common. 

2.  The  coordinating  of  Presbyterian  objectives  with 
those  of  other  Christian  bodies  through  federation,  for 
the  avoiding  of  waste  and  the  supplanting  of  any  ap- 
pearance of  competition  by  thorough-going  coopera- 
tion. 

3.  The  arousing  of  a  Christian  civic  consciousness 
and  directing  it  towards  a  fair  and  hopeful  community 
life,  in  the  terms  of  industry,  housing,  health,  educa- 
tion, recreation  and  other  common  experiences. 

4.  The  breaking  up  of  the  isolation  and  detachment 
of  immigrant  and  foreign  speaking  colonies  and  the 
adjustment  of  these  groups  to  the  total  city  life,  by  the 
pressing  of  a  sane  and  sympathetic  program  of  Amer- 
icanization by  all  churches  in  the  city,  assuring  such 
protection,  education  and  fair  economic  opportunity  as 
shall  enable  the  immigrant  to  make  the  best  that  is  in 
him  effective  in  our  democracy. 

5.  The  establishment  and  maintaining  in  immigrant 
communities  of  well-equipped  and  strongly-manned 
socialized   churches   and   Christian   neighborhood   or 


CITY  MISSIONS  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE  163 

Settlement  houses,  which  shall  afford  a  common  meet- 
ing ground  for  old  and  new  Americans.  Foreign  lan- 
guages to  be  used  in  these  centers  only  as  a  temporary- 
measure  in  order  that  the  Gospel  may  be  better  in- 
terpreted to  the  aged  and  recently  arrived  immigrants 
who  are  still  in  the  process  of  acquiring  English,  and 
that  the  gap  between  immigrant  parents  and  their 
children  may  be  bridged  in  this  period  of  adjustment. 

6.  In  sympathy  with  the  questionings  and  forming 
purposes  of  the  working  class,  the  maintaining  at  some 
downtown  or  central  location  of  a  well-equipperd  so- 
cialized church  with  a  highly  competent  leadership. 
Through  its  Open  Forum  and  discussion  groups  op- 
portunity to  be  given  for  a  thoroughgoing  and  con- 
structive criticism  of  our  present  social  and  industrial 
order  with  a  hearing  assured  all  measures  or  programs 
of  reform  and  advance  that  hold  out  promise  of  a 
better  world.  Such  a  church  to  be  the  expression  of 
the  purpose  of  all  the  churches  in  the  city  and  sus- 
tained, where  necessary,  from  a  central  treasury. 

7.  A  forward  looking  policy  that  shall  anticipate 
the  expansion  of  the  city's  growth  and  provide  ade- 
quate religious  opportunity  and  church  facilities  for 
new  communities  from  their  inception. 

8.  Where  the  city  is  central  to  outlying  dependent 
village  and  country  churches,  a  policy  of  cooperation 
which  stresses  personal  service  rather  than  financial 
aid  and  encourages  such  churches  to  avail  themselves 
of  the  best  ideas  and  methods  in  a  spirit  of  progress. 

Social  Service.  The  connection  between  City  Mis- 
sions and  Social  Service  is  so  close  that  they  may  prop- 
erly be  considered  together.  For  it  is  in  cities  that 
the  chance  for  social  service  is  most  exigent  and  ap- 


i64  I'HE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

pealing.  Indeed,  City  Missions  will  lose  much  of  their 
force  unless  the  social  conditions  around  them  are 
improved.  Social  Service  is  simply  the  moral  and 
religious  care  of  the  community.  And  where  com- 
munities are  packed — as  they  are  in  our  cities — the  re- 
ligious care  of  them  becomes  that  struggle  expressed 
in  the  phrase  Social  Service.  And  this  is  not  a  new 
thing,  though  sometimes  exalted  as  if  it  were.  It  finds 
its  beginning  in  the  ministry  of  Jesus  and  in  the  lives 
and  work  of  His  Apostles.  The  infant  Church  in 
Jerusalem  did  not  have  a  branch  of  social  service. 
Itself  was  an  institution  of  such  service.  That  service 
was  part  of  the  Church's  organic  law.  The  com- 
munity bulked  large  in  its  view.  Hence  the  records 
of  the  first  and  second  chapters  of  the  "Acts  of  the 
Apostles."  When,  in  later  centuries,  individualism 
reigned  and  men's  chief  ambition  was  personal  salva- 
tion through  the  cloister  rather  than  through  the  com- 
munity, social  service  almost  went  out  of  the  recog- 
nition of  the  Church.  Even  the  Reformation  did  not 
stay  this  tendency  to  over-emphasis  of  the  individual 
and  to  the  neglect  of  the  neighborhood. 

The  reaction  to  the  apostolic  conception  of  what  a 
Church  should  be  came  so  gradually  that  social  service 
may  be  said  to  be  a  modern  interpretation  of  Christ's 
wide  vision  of  the  man  and  the  people  and  the  rela- 
tion of  the  one  to  the  other.  The  Church  of  the  last 
generation  has  gone  farther  in  this  direction  than  a 
multitude  of  preceding  generations.  Our  present  pur- 
pose is  only  to  sketch  the  attitude  and  work  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  for  social  service  during  the  past 
fifteen  years. 


Gary  Neighborhood  House,  Gary,  Indiana. 


C"ia>>  at  Ciar\    \eiu;hl-c)rhuMd   ll(Ui>e,  (iar\.   liidunia. 


CITY  MISSIONS  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE  165 

Fifteen  Years  of  Social  Service.  The  Board  of 
Home  Missions  for  years  had  been  feeling  its  way  to 
a  larger  community  service,  but  not  till  1903  did  it  dis- 
tinctly recognize  its  responsibility  to  workingmen  and 
their  families  who  had  been  found  to  be  in  such  large 
measure  wholly  unreached  by  the  Church,  and  organ- 
ize its  "Workingmen's  Department"  and  call  to  that 
service  the  Rev.  Charles  Stelzle. 

Principles  of  Social  Service.  The  Assembly  of  1910 
adopted  the  report  of  a  Special  Committee  on  Social 
Service.  A  brief  outline  of  the  principles  there  an- 
nounced is  as  follows: 

The  Church  declares 

For  an   acknowledgment   of   the  obligations  of 

wealth. 
For  the  application  of  Christian  principles  to  the 

conduct  of  industrial  organizations. 
For  a  more  equitable  distribution  of  wealth. 
For  the  abatement  of  poverty. 
For  the  abolition  of  child  labor. 
For  the  regulation  of  the  conditions  of  the  indus- 
trial occupation  of  women. 
For  the  release  of  every  worker  from  work  one 

day  in  seven. 
For  the  employment  of  methods  conciliation  and 

arbitration  in  industrial  pursuits. 
For  the  development  of  a  Christian  spirit  in  the 

attitude  of  society  toward  offenders  against  the 

law. 

The  Assembly  also  urged  ministers  to  recognize  and 
fulfill  the  obligations  resting  upon  them  with  respect 
to  the  social  application  of  the  gospel. 


i66  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

Bureau  of  Social  Service.  A  few  years  later  the 
name  was  changed  to  the  more  comprehensive  title  of 
"The  Department  of  Church  and  Labor."  Further 
progress  was  made  when  in  191 1  the  General  Assem- 
bly instructed  the  Board  to  establish  a  "Bureau  of 
Social  Service"  in  which  the  "Department  of  Church 
and  Labor"  was  merged.  This  resulted  from  the 
labors  of  a  committee  appointed  by  the  Assembly  to 
give  an  expression  "of  the  thought  and  purpose  of  our 
Church  regarding  the  great  moral  question  arising  out 
of  the  industrial  and  commercial  life  of  the  people." 
It  considered  "the  application  of  the  Gospel  to  the 
acquisition  and  use  of  wealth,  to  the  relations  between 
the  employees  and  employed  and  between  capital  and 
labor,  and  to  the  existence  of  unnecessary  poverty  in 
a  land  where  there  is  more  than  enough  for  all." 

From  a  pamphlet  issued  by  the  Board  in  1913  we 
condense  a  statement  of  principal  features  of  social 
service  during  the  ten  years  following  1903 : 

In  the  field  of  labor  "Labor  Sunday"  was  origi- 
nated, now  observed  very  generally  by  Protestant  de- 
nominations throughout  this  country. 

A  weekly  article  was  furnished  the  labor  press  of 
the  country,  resulting  in  a  marked  change  in  the  atti- 
tude of  the  labor  press  and  labor  leaders  towards  the 
Church. 

Workingmen's  mass  meetings  were  conducted  on  al^ 
most  every  Sunday  during  the  winter  season.  The  one 
aim  of  these  mass  meetings,  which  rarely  numbered 
less  than  a  thousand,  was  to  present  the  claims  of 
Jesus  and  His  Church  upon  the  toilers. 

Important  shop  campaigns  were  also  held.  One 
year,  during  a  period  of  sixty  days  in  six  cities,  five 


CITY  MISSIONS  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE  167 

hundred  ministers  were  enlisted  in  these  campaigns,  a 
thousand  different  meetings  were  held  and  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  people  had  the  gospel  message. 

"Industrial  Parishes"  were  formed  which  were 
adopted  by  individual  churches,  just  as  a  church  would 
become  responsible  for  a  certain  mission  field,  the 
church  supporting  the  mission  and  doing  the  work 
through  its  ministers  and  members. 

Upon  request  made  to  the  Board  of  Home  Missions 
by  presbyteries,  surveys  of  conditions  in  industrial 
centers  were  made  together  with  recommendations  to 
meet  those  conditions.  Such  cities  as  Cleveland,  Buf- 
falo, Chicago,  New  York,  Newark,  Elizabeth  and 
Utica,  and  such  Presbyteries  as  Huntington  and  Red- 
stone in  Pennsylvania,  were  among  the  number. 
Methods  of  church  efficiency  were  studied  in  nearly  a 
hundred  cities  and  in  thousands  of  churches.  The 
survey  blanks  and  charts  used  in  connection  with  the 
extensive  surveys  of  the  "Men  and  Religion  Forward 
Movement"  were  prepared. 

Movements  of  populations  were  interpreted  upon 
request,  especially  in  cities  seeking  to  know  the  special 
type  of  service  required  of  the  Church  to  meet  the 
future  as  well  as  the  present  situation. 

Social  Service  Conferences  were  held  in  colleges 
and  universities,  in  theological  seminaries  and  other 
educational  institutions.  Social  evangelism  and  the 
efficiency  of  the  Church  as  an  agency  for  community 
betterment  were  emphasized,  equally  with  the  fact 
that  the  evangelism  which  seeks  to  regenerate  the  in- 
dividual is  not  only  harmonious  with,  but  essential  to, 
the  social  service  which  seeks  to  regenerate  the  com- 
munity. 


i68  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

"Staff  Service"  was  furnished  for  various  religious 
movements.  Its  Superintendent  was  the  dean  of  the 
social  service  speakers  throughout  the  campaign  of  the 
*'Men  and  Religion  Forward  Movement."  He  also 
conducted  the  Home  Mission  Week  Campaign  for  the 
Home  Missions  Council  and  the  Council  of  Women 
for  Home  Missions,  and  was  Secretary  of  the  Com- 
mission of  the  Church  and  Social  Service  of  the  Fed- 
eral Council  during  the  first  year  of  its  existence. 

By  arrangement  with  leading  publishers  a  library  of 
considerable  size  has  been  collected.  In  addition, 
bibliographies  on  various  social  subjects  have  been 
supplied  to  ministers,  social  workers  and  schools  of 
various  grades. 

Presbyterian  Leadership.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that 
the  work  of  the  Board's  Bureau  of  Social  Service  was 
chiefly  educational — assisting  ministers  and  laymen  to 
meet  the  problems  arising  in  their  own  parishes. 
While  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  the  distinction  of 
being  the  first  denomination  in  this  country  to  estab- 
lish and  carry  on  such  a  department  other  denomina- 
tions in  the  United  States,  Canada  and  Europe  have 
now  inaugurated  similar  movements.  These  bodies 
have  not  been  slow  to  acknowledge  their  indebtedness 
to  the  leadership  of  our  Church.  The  Boston  Herald 
some  years  ago  remarked  editorially : 

"When  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  this  country  a 
few  years  ago  established  its  Department  of  Church 
and  Labor  in  connection  with  the  Home  Missionary 
Society,  it  established  a  precedent  among  American 
Protestant  Churches  and  did  the  most  statesmanlike 
thing  to  be  chronicled  in  the  history  of   American 


CITY  MISSIONS  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE  169 

Protestantism  during  the  past  decade.  The  results 
have  justified  the  innovation." 

In  191 1  speciahzed  study  of  country  church  condi- 
tions and  of  conditions  of  work  among  foreigners 
were  transferred  respectively  to  the  direction  of  the 
Rev.  Warren  H.  Wilson,  D.D.,  and  of  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Payne  Shriver,  D.D.,  who  are  continuing  to  have 
charge  of  these  vital  phases  of  home  mission  service. 
Specialized  city  work,  having  increasingly  to  do  with 
congested  immigrant  populations,  has  also  been  placed 
in  Dr.  Shriver's  care.  Thus  three  essential  features 
of  the  Social  Service  Bureau  are  now  maintained.  Its 
educational  propaganda  has  been  taken  up  by  presby- 
teries and  churches  and  the  social  interpretation  and 
application  of  the  gospel  are  being  steadily  advanced. 
In  many  centers  the  community  life,  inspired  by  the 
community  church,  is  proving  the  gospel's  power  to 
bind  people  into  the  close  and  helpful  bonds  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God. 

By  the  exigencies  of  the  World  War,  in  which  our 
country  and  the  Powers  associated  with  us  are  en- 
gaged in  the  struggle  "to  make  the  world  safe  for 
Democracy,"  a  new  and  startling  meaning  has  come 
into  the  community  service  of  the  churches.  For  this, 
the  seed  sowing  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  during  the 
past  fifteen  years  has  not  been  in  vain.  The  principles 
she  has  announced  and  the  methods  she  has  advised 
have  come  to  unexpected  flower  and  fruitage.  A  new 
home  mission  obligation  has  arisen,  enforced  by  all 
the  old  sanctions  and  now,  in  addition,  by  every  patri- 
otic spirit  and  impulse.  The  saving  of  American  com- 
munities has  an  intensified  meaning.  It  is  necessary, 
as  we  have  long  maintained,  to  save  the  higher  life  of 


170  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

America.  But  also  it  is  necessary  to  make  it  sure  that: 
America  will  do  her  share  in  the  economic,  political 
and  moral  reconstruction  of  the  world. 

Church  Federation.  In  this  view  community  serv- 
ice transcends  all  sectarian  lines.  If  in  past  years  we 
have  had  an  academic  interest  in  church  federation 
and  have  longed  with  more  or  less  fervor  for  the  union 
of  communions,  these  convictions  and  longings  sieze 
us  now  and  demand  that  they  shall  be  realized  as  the 
condition  of  the  very  existence  of  our  Christianity.  It 
is  proper,  therefore,  that  this  chapter  should  conclude 
with  a  reference  to  what  the  Churches  of  to-day  are 
doing  to  realize  this  dream  of  the  ages. 

The  two  interdenominational  bodies  that  stand  pre- 
eminently for  a  common  Christianity  are  the  "Federal 
Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America"  and 
**The  Home  Missions  Council."  Both  are  girding 
themselves  for  this  new  advance. 

At  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Home  Missions 
Council  (January,  19 19)  the  following  statement  was 
adopted : 

"The  war-time  conditions  make  it  most  necessary 
that  the  Christian  forces  of  rural  communities  be  thor- 
oughly unified  in  order  that  they  may  be  equal  to  the 
responsibilities  resting  upon  them.  The  return  of 
the  soldiers  from  the  influence  of  a  unified  service  of 
all  the  Churches  through  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  makes  it  of 
prime  importance  that  the  Churches  meet  them  in  the 
same  spirit.  These  men  will  not  be  interested  in 
Churches  which  manifest  a  greater  interest  in  sec- 
tarian polity  and  prestige  than  in  community  service." 

What  are  the  new  responsibilities  thus  thrown  on 
home  mission  forces?    They  were  cogently  presented 


CITY  MISSIONS  AND  SOCIAL  SERVICE  171 

by  the  War-Time  Commission  of  the  Churches  at  the 
last  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Home  Missions  Council 
and  may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

New  Responsibilities.  Apart  from  the  Church's 
perennial  task  of  ministering  to  the  higher  life  of  the 
nation,  there  are  special  things  she  should  do  at  this 
time. 

First.  She  must  care  for  our  soldiers  and  sailors 
in  their  individual  religious  lives  and  minister  to  the 
homes  from  which  they  came. 

Second,  She  must  care  for  the  exceptional  popula- 
tions which  the  war  has  brought  into  existence  and 
provide  them  with  the  spiritual  sustenance  and  help 
which  they  need. 

Third.  She  must  seek  to  keep  alive  the  interna- 
tional consciousness  to  which  Christ  has  committed 
His  Church. 

Fourth.  She  must  prepare  the  way  for  those  large 
enterprises  of  reconstruction  which  will  be  required 
after  the  war. 


IX 


THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH  AND  MOUN- 
TAINEERS 

IN  his  admirable  book,  "The  Church  of  the  Open 
Country,"  Dr.  Warren  H.  Wilson  gives  us  a  good 
text  for  this  chapter : 
*'It  is  the  common  opinion  of  rural  leaders  that 
country  life  in  America  has  fallen  out  of  repair.  The 
household,  the  church,  the  school  and  the  store  in  the 
country  show  the  effect  of  the  change.  They  are  not 
what  they  were  twenty-five  years  ago.  These  changes 
are  seen  all  over  the  United  States  with  slight  local 
variation.  They  are  uniform  from  Maine  to  Missis- 
sippi. Young  people  are  leaving  the  country  for  the 
city,  teachers  of  country  schools  move  almost  every 
year  and  many  ministers  have  despaired  of  the  coun- 
try church." 

The  country  church  has  always  been  a  mighty  factor 
in  the  developing  of  the  national  life.  Of  course,  in 
the  early  days  nearly  all  churches  were  either  in  the 
country  or  in  villages.  Cities  and  their  many  prob- 
lems had  not  arrived.  The  strength  of  Christianity 
was  in  the  hills.  And  in  those  hills  great  characters 
were  nurtured.  The  farmers  lived  an  independent  and 
solitary  Hfe.  Out  of  that  independence  and  solitude 
sprang  great  leaders  in  Church  and  state.  Life  was  a 
struggle.    That  struggle  developed  the  best  that  was 

172 


CHURCH  AND  MOUNTAINEERS        173 

in  men.  Hence  the  country  pulpit  largely  shaped  the 
country  life.  The  country  church  was  the  prime 
factor  in  the  growth  of  the  community. 

The  Strength  of  the  Hills.  The  dependence  of  the 
country  on  the  country  church  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury finds  nowhere  a  better  illustration  than  in  Litch- 
field County,  Connecticut.  It  is  one  of  the  banner  coun- 
ties of  the  country  in  the  number  of  distinguished  men 
it  has  produced,  specially  in  the  number  of  Christian 
leaders.  Here  the  influence  of  the  pulpit  has  its  most 
signal  expression. 

Thirteen  villages  in  that  county  since  1668  have  had 
the  honor  of  leading  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  young 
men  into  the  ministry,  by  far  the  larger  number  of  these 
getting  their  training  from  their  pastors,  and  far  more 
in  the  eighteenth  century  than  in  the  nineteenth. 
Thus,  the  first  pastor  in  Norfolk,  the  Rev.  Ammi  R. 
Robbins,  began  a  fifty-two  years*  pastorate  in  1761, 
and  in  that  time  personally  trained  and  fitted  for  col- 
lege one  hundred  and  thirteen  boys,  a  number  of 
whom  became  eminent  in  secular  and  religious  life. 

A  list  of  the  men  of  ranking  powers  and  influence 
from  that  one  hill  country  of  Connecticut  would  take 
far  more  space  than  is  at  our  command,  but  a  partial 
list  of  these  country  preachers  of  the  earlier  day,  min- 
istering in  small  villages  in  a  single  county,  may  sug- 
gest to  our  young  ministers  that  all  chances  for  noble 
and  illustrious  lives  are  not  tied  up  to  city  pulpits. 

Thus,  Dr.  Joseph  Bellamy,  the  greatest  preacher  of 
his  day  stayed  in  his  pastorate  in  the  village  of  Bethle- 
hem all  his  life.  More  than  any  other  minister  he 
shaped  the  theological  thinking  of  that  period.  His 
successor  in  that  village  was  Dr.  Azel  Backus,  who 


i;^4  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

later  became  President  of  Hamilton  College.  Dr.  Ed- 
ward D.  Griffin,  a  pastor  in  the  hamlet  of  New  Hart- 
ford, became  President  of  Williams  College.  Dr.  Eb- 
enezer  Porter,  after  serving  for  many  years  as  pastor 
in  the  secluded  village  of  Washington,  became  a  pro- 
fessor in  Andover  Theological  Seminary.  From  that 
same  village  the  Pond  brothers  (the  Rev.  Samuel  W. 
and  the  Rev.  Gideon  A.)  went  out  to  evangelize  the 
Dakotas  in  the  far  Northwest.  Dr.  Noah  Porter, 
from  the  village  of  New  Milford,  became  professor 
and  then  President  of  Yale  College. 

Dr.  Jonathan  Edwards,  pastor  in  the  country  vil- 
lage of  Colebrook,  became  President  of  Union  Col- 
lege. Dr.  Ralph  Emerson,  the  second  pastor  in  Nor- 
folk, was  called  to  a  professorship  in  the  Theological 
Seminary  at  Andover.  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher,  after 
sixteen  years  in  the  beautiful  village  of  Litchfield,  was 
called  to  Boston  and  then  to  Lane  Seminary  at  Cin- 
cinnati. His  six  sons  were  ministers,  all  able  men 
and  one  of  them  the  prince  of  the  American  pulpit. 

Dr.  Nathaniel  W.  Taylor,  the  father  of  what  is 
called  "the  New  Haven  theology,"  came  from  New 
Milford.  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell,  who  took  a  command- 
ing place  in  literature  and  in  the  pulpit,  came  from 
Litchfield.  So  also  came  the  Rev.  John  Pierpont,  who 
was  lawyer,  clergyman  and  poet — not  often  men- 
tioned now  but  who  has  left  poems  that  have  taken 
their  place  in  the  American  anthology.  Dr.  Charles  G. 
Finney,  the  great  evangelist  and  the  founder  of  Ober- 
lin  College,  came  from  the  obscure  village  of  Warren. 

This  is  a  selective  list.  It  might  be  much  extended. 
It  is  cited  here  to  say  to  young  preachers :  There  were 
giants  in  those  days  who  counted  a  country  parish  the 


A  Typical  Country  Churcii. 


larrold's  \'allc\'.  West  X'iryinia,  Suiidax    School. 


CHURCH  AND  MOUNTAINEERS        175 

field  for  their  best  gifts  and  the  training  of  an  illus- 
trious career.  That  such  a  galaxy  of  stars  of  the  first 
magnitude  should  have  shed  their  glory  on  the  hill-girt 
hamlets  of  a  single  county,  in  a  time  when  colleges 
were  far  ofif  and  universities  non-existent,  tells  us 
again  that  solitude  is  often  the  nursery  of  great  spirits 
and  that  we,  of  what  we  count  the  superior  advan- 
tages, have  no  reason  to  look  with  patronage  on  the 
leaders  of  pioneer  days. 

But  now  the  times  have  changed.  The  change  began 
notably  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Stu- 
dents are  not  in  any  numbers  being  trained  for  col- 
lege in  the  study  of  the  country  minister.  Positions  of 
far-reaching  influence  are  not  as  a  rule  held  by  men  in 
country  villages.  The  great  preachers  still  get  a  start 
in  the  country,  but  no  longer  do  they  remain  forty  or 
fifty  or  sixty  years  in  the  same  village  pulpit.  Pro- 
fessors and  presidents  of  colleges  are  now  sought,  not 
in  the  back  country  but  in  the  university. 

Rural  Changes.  What  has  induced  the  change? 
In  a  general  way  one  may  say  it  is  the  centripetal 
tendency  of  our  civilization.  Individualism  no  longer 
reigns.  Men  are  not  nurtured  in  solitude  but  in  crowds. 
More  specifically  the  villages  are  largely  disappearing. 
In  the  West  especially  they  are  growing  into  towns. 
The  towns  are  becoming  cities.  And  the  cities  are  de- 
pleting the  country.  Let  one  take  a  census  of  the  lead- 
ers of  affairs  in  our  great  commercial  centers  and  it 
will  be  found  that  nine  out  of  ten  of  those  leaders  have 
come  from  the  country.  They  had  their  first  training 
in  the  little  red  schoolhouse  and  in  the  country  church. 
The  result  is,  "Country  Life  has  fallen  out  of  repair." 


176  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

It  is  not  only  in  church  matters  that  the  decHne  is 
apparent.  It  appears  in  the  abandoned  farms  of  the 
older  eastern  states;  in  changing  process  in  the 
Middle  West,  by  which  the  farming  has  so  largely 
passed  into  the  hands  of  tenant  farmers.  It  is  seen  in 
the  little  red  schoolhouse  with  broken  windows  and  the 
door  off  the  hinges,  and  often  in  a  general  demoraliza- 
tion of  back  country  communities. 

Depleted  Families.  How  this  depletion  of  country 
life  affects  the  family  is  strikingly  portrayed  in  a  pic- 
ture of  Dr.  Wilson's  personal  experience. 

"I  remember  driving  in  my  early  ministry  from  a 
prosperous  farming  section  into  a  weakened  com- 
munity, whose  lands  had  a  lowered  value  because  they 
lay  too  far  from  a  railroad.  My  path  to  a  chapel 
service  on  Sunday  afternoon  lay  past  seven  successive 
farmhouses,  in  each  of  which  lived  one  member  of  a 
family  clinging  in  solitary  misery  to  a  small  acreage 
which  had  a  few  years  earlier  supported  a  household. 
In  that  same  neighborhood  was  one  group  of  descend- 
ants of  two  brothers  which  had  in  two  generations  pro- 
duced sixteen  suicides.  *They  could  not  stand  trouble' 
the  neighbors  said.  The  lowered  value  of  their  land, 
with  consequent  burdens,  humiliation  and  strain,  had 
crushed  them." 

Now  it  is  for  the  Church  to  meet  and  lift  this  strain. 
She  cannot  do  it  by  perfunctory  church  services  on 
Sunday.  The  new  conditions  must  be  met  by  new 
expedients.  The  country  church  must  be  vitalized 
and  recover  its  old-time  power  in  the  community. 

Community  Life.  For  that,  two  things  are  essen- 
tial. The  first  is  a  movement  away  from  individualism 
into  a  sense  and  practice  of  community  life.    The  sec- 


CHURCH  AND  MOUNTAINEERS        177 

ond  is  country  leadership  in  the  pulpit  like  that  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Ministers  must  get  a  new  vision 
of  the  opportunity  of  the  open  country  and  dedicate 
themselves  to  it  for  a  lifetime  of  country  service. 

Such  leadership  will  be  quick  to  recognize  the 
changed  conditions  of  country  life  and  will  be  cour- 
ageous to  meet  them.  It  will  see  that  men  must  be 
pulled  out  of  their  selfish  individual  life  and  brought 
to  see  that  only  that  life  is  worth  living  which  lives 
in  and  for  the  community.  It  must  see  that  churches 
are  not  merely  seed  plots  for  immortality  but  gardens 
for  time — places  in  which  stimulus  shall  be  imparted 
that  will  make  all  life  sweeter,  nobler  and  more  suc- 
cessful. It  will,  therefore,  consider  the  school  and 
establish  it  with  competent  and  permanent  teachers. 
It  will  consider  the  relations  of  neighbors  to  each 
other  and  by  granges  or  clubs  seek  to  bind  them  to- 
gether in  common  interests  and  pursuits.  It  will  help 
to  recover  the  wornout  soil  by  the  application  of  scien- 
tific methods  of  farming.  And  specially  it  will  make 
the  church  the  center  of  Christian  inspirations  and  of 
such  social  service  as  will  build  a  really  Christian  com- 
munity. Then  only  will  the  despair  of  bad  changed 
conditions  in  the  country  be  lifted  and  be  succeeded 
by  a  joyful  appreciation  of  this  life  and  a  happy  prepa- 
ration for  another. 

Governmental  Action.  The  changed  country  con- 
ditions have  challenged  the  attention  of  our  Govern- 
ment. The  definite  national  movement  on  behalf  of  the 
country  church  dates  from  1909  when  the  Roosevelt 
Country  Life  Commission  summoned  the  churches  to 
their  task.  But  earlier  attention  was  given  by  the 
national  Government  to  the  needs  and  problems  of 
.1^ 


178  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

country  life.  As  long  ago  as  1870  Land  Grant  Col- 
leges were  established  by  the  Government  and  the 
Homestead  Act  of  about  the  same  date.  To  make 
rural  life  more  attractive  the  Rural  Free  Mail  De- 
livery has  been  put  into  operation  and  later  the  Parcel 
Post,  the  Good  Roads  Movement,  and  last  of  all  the 
Federal  Farm  Loan  Board  by  which  the  credit  of 
country  life  may  be  put  at  its  best. 

During  the  years  1909-1919  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment with  state  cooperation  has,  in  obedience  to 
the  Smith-Lever  Act,  instituted  a  County  Agent  sys- 
tem, under  which  agents  are  now  in  1919  serving 
ninety-seven  per  cent,  of  the  habitable  counties  of  the 
United  States,  a  Woman  Farm  Demonstrator  in  over 
sixty  per  cent,  and  a  Boys'  and  Girls'  Club  Worker  in 
about  one-half  of  the  counties.  In  all,  four  thousand 
local  workers  for  better  farms,  better  homes  and 
better  sons  and  daughters. 

The  Government,  thus  alive  to  the  urgency  of  so 
guarding  country  life  that  it  will  hold  and  increase  its 
population,  is  an  example  the  Church  should  be  swift 
to  follow.    And  she  has. 

The  dangerous  changes  of  country  life  have  been 
gradually  coming  to  the  notice  of  the  Church  and  have 
awakened  her  to  a  quickened  sense  of  responsibility  to 
meet  and  overcome  those  conditions  and  bring  the 
country  regions  back  to  that  position  which  in  earlier 
days  made  them  the  prime  factors  of  our  national  up- 
building. The  changes  in  rural  life  which  forced  its 
deterioration  were  easily  discovered.  They  are  worn- 
out  lands,  absentee  landlordism,  foreign  population 
and,  as  the  result  of  all  these,  a  steady  moral  decline. 


CHURCH  AND  MOUNTAINEERS        179 

Country  Uplift.  The  Board  of  Home  Missions  in 
191 1  recognized  the  call  to  specific  service  for  the 
uplift  of  the  country.  To  that  end  it  organized  the 
Church  and  Country  Life  Department  and  placed  at  its 
head  the  man  who  has  since  conducted  it — the  Rev. 
Warren  H.  Wilson,  D.D.  A  year  earlier  he  had  en- 
tered on  the  service  of  the  Board  and  was  assigned  to 
the  holding  of  institutes  and  conferences  among  coun- 
try churches.  Immediately  demands  for  service  to 
rural  presbyteries  and  invitations  from  country 
churches  began  to  flow  in  to  the  Board.  An  increasing 
force  of  workers  has  been  assigned  to  such  fields. 
The  sketch  of  the  work  as  presented  to  the  General 
Assembly  in  1918,  and  quoted  here,  strikingly  sum- 
marizes the  results  of  eight  brief  years: 

"The  following  are  the  accomplishments  which  may 
be  claimed  on  behalf  of  the  Board  in  its  work  for 
country  churches: 

"Among  the  rural  churches  whose  work  was  most 
discouraging  we  have  initiated  a  movement  which  last 
year  resulted  in  a  twenty-nine  per  cent,  increase  in 
the  churches  under  the  charge  of  the  Board  over  other 
churches  of  their  class.  Pastors  in  this  work  are  soul- 
winners.  Every  one  of  them  is  working  for  the  bring- 
ing of  men  to  Christ  as  the  first  task  in  his  program. 
And  the  community  service  which  characterizes  this 
work  in  particular  is  itself  a  great  evangel.  The 
church  that  serves  the  community  is  the  best  gospel 
agency. 

Surveys.  "This  religious  movement  has  been 
guided  by  a  campaign  of  investigation.  It  began  in  a 
survey  made  at  the  request  of  Huntingdon  Presbytery 
in  Pennsylvania,  and  covering  the  counties  of  the  pres- 


i8o  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

bytery.  A  similar  survey  in  the  Presbyteries  of 
Bloomington  and  Springfield,  in  Illinois,  was  the  sec- 
ond. Since  that  time,  in  Indiana,  Missouri,  Tennessee, 
Maryland,  Arkansas,  Minnesota,  Ohio,  California, 
Oregon,  Kentucky  and  Delaware,  the  Church  and 
Country  Life  Work  of  the  Home  Board  has  made 
scientific  surveys  to  bring  before  the  presbyteries  all 
the  work  the  Lord  has  laid  upon  their  hands. 

"Another  phase  of  this  religious  movement  has  been 
one  of  administration.  This  work  was  initiated  by 
Salt  River  Presbytery,  in  Missouri,  which,  with  the 
concurrence  of  the  synod,  asked  that,  through  the  then 
existing  Church  and  Country  Life  Department,  the 
Board  promote  that  rural  presbytery  for  a  period  of 
three  years.  In  the  years  following,  successive  re- 
quests have  come  from  the  Presbyteries  of  French 
Broad,  Cumberland  Mountain,  Dallas,  Austin,  Fort 
Worth,  Columbia-A,  Arkansas,  Fort  Smith,  Box 
Butte,  Sheridan,  Olympia,  Jonesboro,  Iowa,  Fort 
Dodge,  Hobart,  Logan  and  others,  and  from  the  Synod 
of  Mississippi.  After  careful  investigation,  work  has 
been  undertaken  by  the  Board  in  these  presbyteries 
under  the  name  of  Demonstration  Parishes. 

Demonstration  Parish.  "Briefly,  the  Demonstra- 
tion Parish  method  is  to  place  a  responsible,  well- 
trained  minister  as  a  resident  pastor  in  the  country 
parish  for  a  period  of  five  years  and  to  instruct  him  to 
carry  on  a  campaign  beginning  in  evangelism  and  a 
program  including  any  service  needed  by  the  com- 
munity. 

"Foremost  in  the  group  of  country  life  workers 
under  the  Board  was  Miss  Anna  B.  Taft,  who  came 
to  the  Board  in  1910  from  a  career  of  missionary  ad- 


CHURCH  AND  MOUNTAINEERS        i8i 

venture  in  rural  Massachusetts  to  which  she  had  been 
called  by  the  Congregationalists  of  the  state  out  of  a 
life  of  assured  comfort  and  ease.  The  Rev.  Matthew 
Brown  McNutt,  a  pastor  of  distinction  in  Illinois, 
came  in  1912,  and  in  the  same  year  the  Rev.  Clair  S. 
Adams,  an  evangelist.  The  Department  used  in  sur- 
vey work  Anton  T.  Boisen,  E.  Fred  Eastman,  Ralph 
A.  Felton  and  Hermann  N.  Morse,  young  men  who, 
entering  the  ministry  in  the  work  of  investigation 
under  this  Department,  have  all  gone  into  rural  service 
of  distinction.  Two  of  these  men  have  since  been 
added  to  the  official  staff  of  the  Board — the  Rev.  Her- 
mann N.  Morse  in  1914  and  the  Rev.  E.  Fred  Eastman 
in  1919. 

"Some  results  of  this  religious  movement  may  be 
noted : 

"First.  The  young  men  who  have  been  employed  in 
survey  work  and  propaganda  under  the  Church  and 
Country  Life  Work  of  the  Board  in  the  last  eight 
years  have  all  gone  into  rural  service. 

Volunteers.  "Second.  A  result  has  been  that  many 
young  men  have  volunteered  to  work  in  the  country. 
For  the  past  six  years  there  has  been  in  McCormick 
Seminary  a  standing  group  of  between  forty  and  fifty 
young  men  either  pledged  to  go  into  country  service  as 
a  life  work  or  consecrated  to  that  work  as  a  preferred 
form  of  service.  But  the  extension  of  the  work  in  the 
state  universities  and  agricultural  colleges  is  an  even 
more  hopeful  factor.  A  year  ago,  in  the  State  Agri- 
cultural College  at  Manhattan,  Kansas,  there  were 
found  fifty  young  men  and  women  personally  and 
definitely  interested  in  rural  Christian  service.  In  the 
State  College  of  Agriculture  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  forty- 


i82  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

nine  young  men  were  found  definitely  interested  in  the 
work  of  the  country  church. 

"Third.  In  the  mountain  country  such  hope  has 
been  inspired  as  to  create  the  Cumberland  Mountain 
Presbytery,  recently  erected  by  the  Synod  of  Ten- 
nessee and  put  under  the  Board's  Church  and  Country 
Life  Work  for  a  period  of  ten  years  for  the  purpose 
of  making  a  great  rural  presbytery. 

"The  Church  and  Country  Life  Work  of  the  Home 
Board  has  brought  about  similar  work  in  other  great 
communions.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has 
created  a  department  similar  to  our  own.  The  North- 
ern Convention  of  the  Baptist  Churches  has  taken 
action  looking  toward  the  same  end  and  now  has  a  su- 
perintendent for  this  work.  The  Disciples,  the  Mo- 
ravians and  others  have  created  commissions  or  de- 
partments for  this  purpose. 

Rural  Fields  Committee.  "The  Home  Missions 
Council  has  created  a  Rural  Fields  Committee,  under 
the  leadership  of  men  interested  in  the  country  church, 
to  work  among  churches  throughout  all  denomina- 
tions. 

"The  centering  upon  the  person  and  work  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  this  whole  movement,  which  is  national,  edu- 
cational, economic,  sanitarian,  has  been  the  great 
achievement  of  the  Presbyterian  church.  Since  the 
time  of  President  Roosevelt  all  of  the  United  States 
have  been  considering,  through  many  national  and 
state  agencies,  the  affairs  of  the  farmer.  Interest  in 
country  life  has  been  everywhere  increasing.  The  task 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  been  to  turn  this  in- 
terest toward  evangelism.  In  the  Country  Church 
Program  successively  adopted  in  the  conferences,  the 


CHURCH  AND  MOUNTAINEERS        183 

first  of  which  was  with  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural 
College  at  Amherst,  1909,  the  first  feature  has  always 
been  that  the  program  of  the  country  church  begins 
with  evangelism." 

The  work  thus  inaugurated  is  only  in  the  beginning. 
More  remains  for  the  future  than  is  easily  recognized 
to-day.  The  future  of  our  country  depends  on  noth- 
ing more  than  on  a  thrifty,  self-respecting,  intelligent 
and  moral  country  population.  The  ideal  of  such  a 
population,  united  in  the  achievement  of  best  results 
in  life  and  government,  is  increasingly  threatened  by 
the  varieties  of  people  from  many  nations  coming 
more  or  less  into  all  our  rural  regions  and  by  the  eco- 
nomic changes  going  on  whereby  stability  and  perma- 
nence of  social  conditions  become  steadily  more  diffi- 
cult. 

To  this  is  to  be  added  the  continued  depletion  of 
country  life  by  its  young  and  strong  elements  being 
drawn  into  the  city.  The  loneliness  of  pioneer  days 
in  many  regions  menaces  the  life  of  the  farmer. 
Writers  speak  of  the  movement  back  to  the  country. 
But  the  movement  of  city  people  to  seek  elegant  sum- 
mer homes  among  the  hills  (and  only  in  this  sense 
is  there  any  such  movement)  does  not  build  the  places 
made  waste  by  the  cityward  exodus. 

The  problem  of  rebuilding  the  country  church  and 
reestablishing  it  as  a  spiritual  power  is  not  less  but 
more  difficult  than  it  was  fifty  years  ago.  Then  it  was 
simply  to  educate  and  spiritually  stimulate  a  homo- 
geneous community  already  inclined  by  inheritance 
and  surroundings  to  hear  and  obey  tlie  gospel  message. 
Now  it  is  complex  to  harmonize  and  uplift  elements 


i84  THE  SOUIv  OF  AMERICA 

at  variance  socially,  economically,  racially  and  re- 
ligiously. 

A  Country  Nation.  The  nation  is  still  more  than 
fifty  per  cent,  agricultural.  Over  half  the  population 
still  resides  in  communities  of  less  than  twenty-five 
hundred  and  a  large  proportion  of  those  residing  in 
centers  classified  as  cities  are  directly  dependent  on 
agriculture  for  subsistence.  It  is  estimated  that  sev- 
enty per  cent,  of  our  Presbyterian  churches  are  located 
in  towns  and  villages  of  less  than  twenty-five  hundred 
population  or  in  the  open  country.  The  Board's 
Country  Work,  whether  estimated  on  the  basis  of  the 
modern  difficulties  which  attend  it  or  on  that  of  its 
actual  size,  is  one  of  prime  and  increasing  importance. 

Federation  of  Country  Churches.  One  of  its  most 
hopeful  signs  is  in  the  spirit  of  the  federation  of  coun- 
try churches  represented  by  the  Federal  Council  and 
the  Home  Missions  Council.  This  movement  is  in  its 
infancy,  but  it  is  growing.  The  State  of  Maine,  under 
the  leadership  of  the  late  President  W.  DeWitt  Hyde 
of  Bowdoin  College,  and  the  Rev.  A.  W.  Anthony, 
D.D.,  from  1891  to  1918  Secretary  of  the  Church  Fed- 
eration of  Maine,  has  made  distinct  progress  toward 
this  ideal.  The  rural  population  in  Maine  is  decreas- 
ing. Fewer  churches  are,  therefore,  needed.  The 
ipopulation  is  also  homogeneous.  Federation,  there- 
fore, in  that  state  has  had  a  fair  chance  and  has  scored 
a  good  success.  Similar  results  have  been  achieved 
in  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island  by  the  New  Eng- 
land Federation  under  the  leadership  of  its  Secretary, 
the  Rev.  E.  Tallmadge  Root.  In  Vermont  the 
churches  in  1918  after  conference  of  state  leaders 
adopted  a  plan  of  federation  by  which  in  a  period 


Poultry  Club,  Rocky  Fork,  Teiniessee. 


Cauuiug  Club,  Rocky  Fork, 


CHURCH  AND  MOUNTAINEERS        185 

of  seventeen  months  twenty-two  unions  and  federa- 
tions of  churches  in  the  smaller  communities  in  the 
state  had  been  effected.  The  result  is  that  nine  whole 
towns  have  been  given  over  each  to  the  care  of  one 
Protestant  Church,  fourteen  ministers  were  *'con- 
served,"  or  freed  for  service  elsewhere,  fourteen  min- 
isters are  now  receiving  a  more  adequate  salary,  nine- 
teen hundred  dollars  of  home  missionary  money  was 
freed  for  use  in  more  needy  fields.  While  sufficient 
data  is  not  in  hand  for  asserting  it  of  every  case,  of 
the  changes  as  a  whole  it  can  be  said  that  there  has 
been  increased  church  attendance,  greater  influence  of 
the  church  on  community  life  and  enlistment  of  "out- 
siders" in  church  work. 

The  final  success  of  federation  will  not  come  until 
there  has  been  developed  a  strong  sense  of  the  need 
and  value  of  community  life  and  service.  People  will 
be  slow  to  unite  in  bonds  of  church  worship  until  they 
have  learned  how  to  live  helpfully  and  hopefully  to- 
gether in  the  social  and  economic  relations  of  life. 
Given  the  community  feeling,  the  community  federa- 
tion will  follow  as  a  natural  consequence. 

Home  Missions  Council.  The  Home  Missions 
Council,  which  represents  in  its  organization  and  ac- 
tivities nearly  all  the  Protestant  bodies  of  the  coun- 
try, is  giving  itself  definitely  to  the  solution  of  the 
country  church  problem  by  means  of  cooperation  and 
federation  of  the  churches.  Although  young  in  its 
plans  and  enterprises  it  has  already  achieved  marked 
success.  It  has  taken  part  in  the  active  work  of  or- 
ganizing State  Councils  in  home  mission  territory  and 
in  cooperation  with  home  missionary  authorities. 
Since  191 3  such  service  has  been  rendered  New  York, 


i86  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

Ohio,  Kansas,  Oklahoma,  North  and  South  Dakota, 
Montana,  Oregon  and  Utah. 

New  York  Country  Church  Council.  In  New  York 
State  the  desired  work  is  represented  in  the  New  York 
State  Country  Church  Council,  which  is  now  a  dele- 
gated body  of  the  Baptist,  Congregational,  Methodist, 
Reformed  and  Presbyterian  bodies  in  the  state.  Its 
program  is  a  very  definite  one.  It  proposes  and  has 
carried  out  County  Evangelistic  Campaigns.  The 
State  Sunday  School  Association  cooperates  in  making 
a  survey  of  the  county.  The  Country  Church  Council 
organizes  the  campaign  by  which  the  gospel  is  preached 
simultaneously  in  every  school  district  in  the  county  in 
a  certain  fortnight.  The  churches  of  the  county  subse- 
quently organize  for  whatever  program  they  have 
discovered  and  deem  necessary.  This  is  the  working 
program  for  that  state.  It  might  profitably  be  emu- 
lated by  other  states  as  a  means  of  bringing  country 
churches  into  closer  sympathy  and  definite  partnership 
in  service,  even  though  it  does  not  at  present  lead  on 
to  church  federation.  The  life  and  stimulation  of 
country  churches  demands  the  cooperation  of  all  good 
people  of  the  community  along  lines  of  united  service. 

During  the  year  closing  March  thirty-first,  1918, 
there  were  forty-one  ministers,  fifteen  community 
workers,  in  the  nine  Synods  of  Alabama,  Arkansas, 
Iowa,  Nebraska,  Oklahoma,  Tennessee,  Texas,  Wash- 
ington and  Wyoming.  In  all  those  states  the  efficiency 
of  some  churches  has  been  increased  by  the  specific 
plans  and  endeavors  of  the  Country  Life  Department. 

Logging  Camps.  A  word  should  be  given  to  what 
may  properly  be  called  country  Hfe  work.  It  is  esti- 
mated there  are  approximately  three  hundred  thou- 


CHURCH  AND  MOUNTAINEERS        187 

sand  men  engaged  in  lumber  work  in  the  woods  chiefly 
in  the  Northwest.  They  are  away  from  home,  in 
lonely  places,  only  each  other  for  company,  enduring 
many  hardships  and  exposed  to  many  temptations. 
The  Presbyterian  Board  with  Boards  of  other  com- 
munions are  working  together  for  the  moral  and  re- 
ligious care  of  these  people. 

By  the  agency  of  the  Home  Missions  Council  the 
regions  of  the  logging  camps  have  been  districted 
among  the  bodies  doing  or  contemplating  special  work 
for  such  camps.  Northern  Wisconsin  and  Minne- 
sota have  for  ten  years  been  the  scene  of  heroic  labors 
for  the  loggers,  instituted  first  by  the  inspiring  service 
of  Frank  E.  Higgins.  It  is  now  in  prospect  to  extend 
these  labors  to  such  parts  of  the  Pacific  Northwest 
as  may  be  assigned  to  the  Presbyterian  Board. 

The  Mountaineers 

John  Fiske,  in  his  "Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neigh- 
bors," says : 

"In  a  certain  sense  the  Shenandoah  Valley  and  ad- 
jacent Appalachian  region  may  be  called  the  cradle  of 
modern  democracy.  In  that  rude  frontier  society  life 
assumed  many  new  aspects, — old  customs  were  for- 
gotten, old  distinctions  abolished,  social  equality  ac- 
quired even  more  importance  than  unchecked  indi- 
vidualism      This  phase  of  democracy,  which 

is  destined  to  continue  so  long  as  frontier  life  retains 
any  importance,  can  nowhere  be  so  well  studied  in  its 
beginnings  as  among  the  Presbyterian  population  of 
the  Appalachian  region  In  the  eighteenth  century." 

Scotch-Irish.  The  astute  philosopher  here  records 
several  Important  facts.     Thus,  as  Mr.  Roosevelt  has 


i88  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

said,  those  mountain  people  were  mostly  Presbyteri- 
ans, of  Scotch  and  Scotch-Irish  extraction.  It  fol- 
lows, therefore,  that  they  had  an  inherited  love  of  edu- 
cation. In  1776,  out  of  a  hundred  and  ten  pioneers 
of  that  district  who  signed  a  petition  to  be  annexed  to 
North  Carolina,  Mr.  Roosevelt  found  only  two  who 
signed  by  mark.  In  1780  two  hundred  fifty-six 
pioneers  of  Cumberland  signed  articles  of  agreement 
and  only  one  by  mark.  We  mistake,  therefore,  if  we 
think  their  present  illiteracy  is  in  the  blood.  Those 
pioneer  democrats  first  erected  the  rude  church  build- 
ing and  immediately  after  the  schoolhouse.  And 
yet  to-day  the  illiterate  percentage  is  alarmingly  large. 
Taking  the  Appalachian  region  as  a  whole  over  six- 
teen per  cent,  of  the  voters  are  illiterate.  That,  it  is 
computed,  indicates  that  of  the  white  population  over 
ten  years  of  age  about  fifty  per  cent,  are  illiterate. 

How  shall  we  reconcile  the  intelligence  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  with  prevailing  illiteracy  a  hundred 
years  later?  It  is  not  too  easily  accounted  for.  The 
main  factors  producing  that  result,  however,  were 
probably  the  severe  struggle  for  bare  existence  which 
made  families  careless  of  all  things  beyond  that 
struggle  and  especially  the  isolation  which  shut  them 
in  from  all  currents  of  intelligence  flowing  around 
them. 

And  referring  again  to  Mr.  Fiske  we  must  not  for- 
get that  the  present  generation  appealing  so  cogently 
for  help  from  the  outside  were  emphatically  the  most 
self-helping  of  all  the  American  communities.  In  their 
sense  of  absolute  social  equality  they  relied  on  one  an- 
other in  mutual  dependence  and  built  up  the  most  thor- 
ough type  of  American  democracy.     With  the  self- 


A  Lumber  Camp  of  the  Northwest. 


A  "Loading:  Donkey"  and  Crew. 


CHURCH  AND  MOUNTAINEERS        189 

reliance  learned  in  their  school  of  hard  times  and  im- 
minent perils  they  combined  a  manly  courage  which 
contributed  to  American  independence  for  out  of  pro- 
portion to  their  numbers.  It  was  they  who  drove  out 
the  Indian  hordes  perpetually  threatening  their  settle- 
ments. It  was  they  who  drafted  the  first  document 
against  British  rule. 

First  Note  for  Liberty.  As  early  as  1775  in  the 
Valley  of  the  Blue  Ridge  a  council  met  mostly  com- 
posed, as  Bancroft  says,  "of  Presbyterians  of  Scotch- 
Irish  descent"  w^hich  resolved  "never  to  surrender  but 
to  live  and  die  for  liberty."  Several  months  later  in 
the  same  year  those  same  people  in  the  lowland  hills 
of  North  Carolina  issued  the  immortal  Mecklenburg 
Declaration,  separating  one  county  in  North  Carolina 
from  the  British  Crown.  This  was  a  year  before  the 
Philadelphia  Declaration  of  Independence.  Four 
years  later  the  fate  of  the  colonies  was  still  in  doubt. 
Battles  in  the  South  had  been  going  against  them. 
Washington  said  he  had  almost  lost  hope.  It  was  then 
that  Presbyterian  frontiersmen,  with  Presbyterian 
elders  leading  the  columns,  fought  the  decisive  battle 
of  Kings  Mountain  which  more  than  any  other  single 
battle  turned  the  tide  and  assured  the  American  inde- 
pendence. 

Those  people,  thus  justly  entitled  to  high  praise  for 
intelligence,  democracy,  courage  and  social  spirit,  ap- 
peal to  the  Christian  people  as  one  of  the  most  urgent 
of  all  our  missionary  fields.  And  that  along  two  lines. 
For  the  reason  given  they  need  the  schoolhouse,  with 
all  that  it  implies.  And  they  need  the  Christian  gospel 
and  Church.  For  they  have  fallen  back  during  the 
century,  not  only  from  inherited  intelligence  but  also 


190  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

from  inherited  character.  Their  isolation  has  worked 
disastrously  on  their  morals.  More  than  we  realize  we 
lean  on  each  other.  Society  has  a  steadying  influence. 
For  lack  of  it  the  mountaineers  in  so  many  cases  by 
sheer  force  of  their  strong  individuality  press  unhin- 
dered into  lives  of  immorality  and  often  of  crime. 
The  feuds  of  Kentucky  had  been  impossible  in  the 
close  friendly  neighborhoods  of  Ohio. 

We  have  referred  to  the  early  missionary  labors 
in  the  Appalachians.  Into  them  and  over  them  went 
much  of  the  best  brains  as  well  as  stoutest  muscle 
of  the  American  pioneers.  They  made  our  first  west- 
em  civilization.  But  for  reasons  given  their  descend- 
ants lost  the  intelligence  of  the  first  settlers.  They  did 
not,  however,  lose  their  Christian  inheritance.  It  only 
slumbered.  It  needed  but  the  touch  of  the  old  gospel 
to  waken  again  to  newness  of  life.  That  gospel  in  the 
last  half  century  came  to  them  first  in  the  ministry 
of  the  Baptist  and  Methodist  preachers,  often  only 
traveling  evangelists,  giving  their  message  and  passing 
on.  That  message  was  often  crudely  given  and  not 
sustained  by  Christian  education  and  institutions. 

And  because  the  Presbyterian  Church,  true  to  her 
historic  standards,  insisted  in  the  South,  as  elsewhere, 
on  a  trained  ministry  she  lost  some  of  her  prestige 
among  the  Appalachians  to  which  her  history  entitled 
her.  Nevertheless  her  maintenance  of  her  traditions 
and  her  devotion  to  education  laid  foundations  in  the 
mountains  which  are  now  beginning  to  receive  the 
superstructure  of  enlightened  communities.  The  creed 
for  new  territories  was  "Christ  and  His  Church — 
Education  and  its  Schoolhouse." 


CHURCH  AND  MOUNTAINEERS        191 

First  Acadamies.  So  Dr.  Samuel  Doak  in  1783 
secured  a  charter  for  Martin  Academy  and  in  1818 
he  founded  Tusculum  Academy.  Dr.  Hezekiah  Balch 
in  the  eighties  established  an  academy  at  Greenville. 
Dr.  Anderson  in  1802  founded  Union  Academy  at 
Knoxville.  Colleges  grew  out  of  these  academies. 
Indeed,  all  of  the  early  colleges  in  the  mountains  were 
of  Presbyterian  origin.  Washington  College  chartered 
in  1795,  Greenville  and  Tusculum  in  1794,  Blount  Col- 
lege, now  the  University  of  Tennessee,  Maryville  Col- 
lege, founded  as  "The  Southern  and  Western  Theo- 
logical Seminary  in  1819, — all  were  of  Presbyterian 
origin. 

Out  of  these  small  colleges  sprang  many  of  the  great 
leaders  in  church  and  civic  affairs  through  all  that 
mountain  region.  We  have  alluded  to  the  fact  that 
the  Church  lost  the  educational  preeminence  which  it 
had  in  the  early  days.  The  reasons  were  in  part  lack 
of  ministers.  If  it  is  difficult  now  to  secure  even  for 
our  advanced  communities  an  adequate  supply  of 
trained  men,  how  much  more  then,  when  men  were  at 
a  premium,  when  every  man  was  needed  for  the  rougli 
and  exigent  work  of  subduing  a  wilderness  and  hold- 
ing savages  in  check. 

Poverty  was  another  reason  for  the  lack  of  minis- 
ters. There  was  no  Home  Board  and  no  resources 
among  the  settlers  which  could  be  drawn  upon.  Get- 
ting a  living  was  a  stern  fight.  Such  superfluities  as 
education  and  the  building  of  churches  must  wait  a 
while ! 

In  addition  to  all  else  the  mountains  were  drained 
by  the  alluring  West.  When  the  fertile  plains  across 
the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  dawned  on  the  mountain 


igi  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

horizons  there  was  an  exodus  to  greener  pastures. 
The  alert  and  capable  went  West.  The  easy-going  and 
indolent  stayed  at  home.  So  the  mountains  had  a 
hard  time. 

Rev.  Isaac  Anderson,  D.D.  The  name  of  a  hero 
who  sought  a  daring  way  to  increase  the  number  of 
missionaries  for  the  West  must  here  be  recorded.  The 
Rev.  Isaac  Anderson,  D.D.,  was  a  missionary  pioneer 
to  eastern  Tennessee.  The  religious  destitution  ap- 
palled him.  Taking  a  long  journey  to  seven-year-old 
Princeton  he  pleaded  for  help.  But  the  students  there 
had  no  vision.  He  went  home  discouraged  but  not 
dismayed.  If  eastern  boys  would  not  go  West  he 
would  raise  them  up  on  the  field.  He  founded  at 
Maryville  "The  Southern  and  Western  Theological 
Seminary."  That  school  of  the  prophets  has  not  much 
mention  in,  modern  Christian  literature;  but  that 
pioneer  educator  had  the  joy  of  seeing  a  hundred  and 
fifty  of  the  graduates  of  his  school  enter  the  Presby- 
terian ministry. 

It  is  said  The  Bdinsburgh  Review  was  founded  "on 
a  little  oat  meal."  There  was  not  much  more  than  oat 
meal  in  the  founding  of  that  first  western  seminary. 
It  is  a  question  whether  later  richer  institutions  can 
present  a  better  record.  Within  those  humble  halls, 
and  by  the  one-man  faculty,  were  trained  men  who 
moulded  a  growing  empire  when  the  material  was 
plastic. 

Many  pioneer  preachers  out  of  that  and  other 
schools  gave  valiant  service  in  the  early  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  Their  names  and  record  is  more 
on  high  then  here  below.  But  gradually  as  the  years 
wore  on  one  vast  stumbling  block  stood  in  the  way 


z; 


2; 


CHURCH  AND  MOUNTAINEERS        193 

of  missionary  progress.  There  was  a  steady  decline 
of  intelligence,  an  increasing  absence  of  schools.  A 
gospel  message  was  not  sufficient.  Foundations  must 
be  put  in. 

Mountain  Schools.  At  this  point  in  the  history  we 
come  to  a  new  era.  It  is  the  era  of  the  mountain  mis- 
sion school.  Here  begins  the  story  of  the  response  of 
Presbyterian  women  to  the  voiceless  appeal  of  the 
southern  mountains.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
the  first  really  constructive  work  done  for  the  moun- 
taineers in  later  times  was  that  of  the  Woman's 
Board,  which  forty  years  ago  went  into  those  solitudes 
with  the  Christian  school.  The  story  is  full  of  interest 
verging  on  romance.    It  can  here  be  only  touched. 

Rocky  Ridge.  The  first  mission  school  for  moun- 
tain children  was  opened  in  1879,  only  a  year  after  the 
organization  of  the  Woman's  Executive  Committee. 
Miss  F.  E.  Ufford  began  it  in  a  windowless  log  cabin 
at  Rocky  Ridge,  three  miles  from  Concord,  North 
Carolina.  She  began  with  twenty-two  pupils.  In 
three  weeks  the  school  outgrew  the  cabin  with  an  en- 
rollment of  sixty.  Mr.  James  B.  White  had  given  the 
cabin,  with  four  acres  of  land.  In  his  honor  a  two- 
story  building  was  erected  and  named  White  Hall. 
In  1891  the  building  was  burned.  Miss  Ufford  went 
to  Washington  and  presented  the  call  of  the  home- 
less school.  The  money  was  promptly  given  and  in 
memory  of  Miss  Sunderland,  whose  love  for  missions 
the  women  of  the  Washington  Presbyterial  Society 
desired  to  commemorate,  the  Laura  Sunderland 
School  entered  on  its  enlarged  career.  It  now  has  a 
staff  of  teachers  with  seventy-two  pupils  to  whom  a 
four  years'   course   is   given   covering  the   grammar 

13 


194  I'HE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

grades  and,  in  addition,  a  good  deal  of  household  eco- 
nomics. Many  of  the  girls  go  on  to  higher  educa- 
tion in  the  Normal  Collegiate  at  Asheville. 

The  Woman's  Board,  seeing  here  a  great  oppor- 
tunity, opened  one  school  after  another  as  the  Church, 
in  response  to  appeals,  provided  the  equipment.  In 
1887  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Luke  Borland  started  a  small  day 
school  in  their  own  home  for  the  children  of  Hot 
Springs,  North  Carolina,  who  were  absolutely  without 
a  school  of  any  description.  In  1893  the  Woman's 
Board  took  up  this  work.  It  now  became  a  boarding 
vSchool  for  girls.  In  a  few  years  a  farm  was  purchased 
two  miles  away  which  in  1896  offered  a  chance  for 
fifty  boys  to  learn  how  to  farm,  and  also  to  get  school- 
ing at  the  Borland  Institute,  by  a  daily  walk  of  four 
miles.  In  1910  a  fire  destroyed  the  building  of  the 
Institute  but  a  larger  and  better  one  promptly  took  its 
place.  And  so  the  double  work  of  school  and  farm 
goes  prosperously  on. 

Asheville  Schools.  In  1887  a  boarding  school  for 
girls  (now  the  Home  School)  was  opened  at  Ashe- 
ville to  give  mountain  girls  "mental,  physical,  in- 
dustrial and  spiritual  training."  From  the  first  it  has 
been  a  great  success.  Miss  Florence  Stevenson,  prin- 
cipal for  thirty  years,  has  been  its  inspiring  genius. 
Wherever  she  has  told  the  story  of  mountain  work  the 
funds  have  been  freely  given.  Five  hundred  full 
graduates  have  gone  back  into  the  mountains  to  make 
more  beautiful  homes.  Two  hundred  have  availed 
themselves  of  a  chance  for  higher  education  in  the 
Normal  Collegiate  just  across  the  campus. 

This  latter  institution  opened  its  doors  in  1892.  The 
name  of  that  great  missionary  for  mountaineers,  Dr. 


A  Missionary's  Home  as  She  Finds  It. 


•■<'■■ 

./  •  ,1 

A  Missionary's  Home  as  She  Develops  It. 


CHURCH  AND  MOUNTAINEERS        195 

Thomas  Lawrence,  will  always  be  associated  with  this 
school,  over  whose  development  he  watched  with  lov- 
ing devotion  until  1907.  Mr.  John  E.  Calfee  is  its 
competent  president.  Beautifully  housed  and  thor- 
oughly equipped,  it  offers  four  courses  of  study, — 
normal,  collegiate,  domestic  arts  and  domestic  science. 
It  is  the  keystone  of  the  Appalachian  school  system. 
About  five  hundred  students  have  graduated,  of  whom 
about  two  hundred  are  now  teachers,  many  in  their 
home  localities.  Not  one  graduate  but  is  a  professing 
Christian — a  most  remarkable  record. 

With  the  Asheville  schools  should  be  mentioned  the 
fine  Farm  School  nine  mile  away  where,  on  a  farm  of 
four  hundred  twenty  acres  secured  by  the  munificence 
of  the  Rev.  D.  Stuart  Dodge,  D.D.,  so  long  President 
of  the  Home  Board,  the  mountain  boys  are  learning 
at  once  the  art  of  making  mountain  farms  productive 
and  the  art  of  Christian  living. 

Other  schools  of  the  Woman's  Board  are  the  Lang- 
don  Memorial  at  Mt.  Vernon,  Kentucky,  the  Pattie  C. 
Stockdale  Memorial  in  West  Virginia,  and  the  Juniper 
School  in  Tennessee. 

Public  Schools.  We  come  now  to  the  time  when  a 
change  of  mountain  conditions  had  necessitated 
changes  of  policy.  In  the  course  of  the  years  the 
mountain  communities,  awakened  by  illustrations  of 
what  schools  will  do  for  people,  have  taken  steps 
toward  a  more  adequate  public  school  system.  It  has 
never  been  the  policy  of  the  Woman's  Board  to  re- 
lieve any  community  of  responsibility  for  its  own  de- 
velopment. For  many  years,  therefore,  a  sort  of 
partnership  has  existed  between  the  \A^oman's  Board 
and  the  communities  by  which  the  Board  has  supplied 


196  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

teachers  for  the  two  or  three  or  four  months  that  the 
pubHc  funds  have  permitted  and  then  out  of  its  treas- 
ury has  continued  the  school  for  other  months.  This 
plan  has  not  been  without  criticism.  It  has  always  by 
the  Woman's  Board  been  regarded  as  a  temporary  ex- 
pedient to  enable  the  communities  to  get  on  their  own 
feet  and  secure  public  schools  of  proper  character  for 
a  proper  length  of  time. 

Change  of  Policy.  Rapidly,  therefore,  as  public 
schools  have  been  installed,  the  Woman's  Board  has 
withdrawn  its  day  schools  and  in  their  place  has 
carried  on  community  service  in  the  homes  of  the 
people.  In  the  course  of  their  twenty  years  of  day- 
school  service  they  had  accumulated  many  school 
buildings,  with  cottages  adjoining  for  the  use  of  teach- 
ers. These  buildings  were  in  many  cases  sold  to  the 
public  authorities  for  school  purposes  and  on  such 
terms  as  made  it  easier  for  the  commimities  to  assume 
the  work  which  the  Woman's  Board  was  so  anxious 
they  should  undertake.  In  other  cases  the  property 
was  turned  over  to  the  Home  Board  for  preaching  sta- 
tions and  settlement  work. 

The  Home  Board  was  now  turning  its  attention  to 
its  country  life  work  in  which  community  service 
played  so  large  a  part.  The  Woman's  Board  had  laid 
the  foundation  for  it  in  scores  of  mountain  neighbor- 
hoods. The  two  Boards,  therefore,  cooperated  in  this 
new  form  of  mission  work. 

Community  Service.  The  transition  from  the 
school  work  to  the  new  form  of  community  service 
organized  by  the  Country  Life  Department  of  the 
Home  Board  is  one  of  the  most  significant  signs  of  the 
times.     Let  it  be  understood  that  the  work  of  both 


WA 


^f, 


HI    tl    t!  Ill     S      ^    llll    ,;- 


Minm^i'f^iiiiiir 


^f*vTY« 


Xormal    and   Collegiate    Institute,   Asheville,    North    Carolina. 


CHURCH  AND  MOUNTAINEERS        197 

Boards  in  that  region  was  in  no  sectarian  interest. 
Neither  in  church  or  school  was  the  prime  object  to 
increase  the  number  of  Presbyterians.  Had  that  been 
the  aim  it  would  be  necessar}^  to  say,  after  all  these 
years  of  devoted  service,  the  work  has  been  a  good 
deal  of  a  failure.  Visible  church  results  have  not  been 
in  proper  proportion  to  the  energies  expended.  But 
the  Boards  had  a  far  larger  purpose, — the  uplift  of 
the  mountain  people  and  their  restoration  to  the  level 
of  their  inheritance.  To  that  end  schools  have  sought 
to  give  intelligence  and  the  churches  to  give  the  evan- 
gelistic gospel  a  message  by  which  other  communions 
as  well  as  the  Presbyterian  should  share  in  the  com- 
mon blessings. 

Steadily  holding  this  purpose,  when  the  Woman's 
Board  had  by  its  schools  so  implanted  a  general  de- 
sire for  popular  education  that  the  state  or  the  county 
was  aroused  to  a  willingness  to  assume  the  burdens  of 
public  schools,  the  Board  gladly  turned  its  schools  one 
by  one  to  the  authorities  ready  to  accept  the  responsi- 
bility. Then,  as  we  have  stated,  the  idea  of  com- 
munity service  arose.  Teachers  released  from  the 
schoolroom  were  prepared  for  the  missionary  service 
from  house  to  house. 

But  more  was  needed.  The  uplift  of  mountain 
communities  needed  more  than  a  schoolhouse  and  a 
church.  They  needed  a  broad  Christian  ministry 
which  would  take  note  of  every  defect  and  need.  We 
have  noted  that  the  mountain  isolation  was  one  of  the 
handicaps  of  mountain  people.  They  must  get  in 
touch  with  each  other.  Society  has  saving  qualities. 
Therefore,  roads  must  be  built  on  which  neighbors 
could  become  neighbors,  on  which  people  could  travel 


198  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

to  reach  the  various  hands  of  help  that  were  being 
held  out. 

Then,  too,  lands  that  had  treasures  which  good 
farming  could  evoke  had  been  left  to  lie  fallow.  The 
farm  people  needed  not  so  much  scientific  lectures  as 
agricultural  demonstration. 

Also  mortality  among  mountaineers  had  been  un- 
necessarily large.  In  those  ozone  realms  people  should 
live  a  hundred  years.  And  they  did  not.  They  needed 
proper  elemental  hygiene  and  sanitation.  They  needed 
doctors,  nurses  and  hospitals. 

Here  then  emerged  the  chance  for  the  further  serv- 
ice of  the  Woman's  Board  and  of  the  Country  Life 
Department.  Here  they  could  grandly  cooperate.  The 
most  significant  sphere  for  such  cooperation  was  fur- 
nished by  the  French  Broad  Presbytery  in  North 
Carolina,  in  which  a  large  part  of  the  work  of  the 
Woman's  Board  had  been  done.  Here  was  an  oppor- 
tunity for  a  great  experiment. 

Miss  Frances  L.  Goodrich.  The  transition  from 
school  work  to  community  work  gathered  about  one 
missionary  personality.  Miss  Frances  L.  Goodrich 
had  for  many  years  been  the  pioneer  of  the  Woman's 
Board  in  building  one  schoolhouse  after  another,  one 
cottage  after  another  and  on  securing  teachers  for 
schoolhouse  and  cottage  moving  on  to  some  more  des- 
titute region  and  doing  the  same  thing  again.  When 
in  191 3  the  Country  Church  Department  took  charge 
of  the  work  of  the  French  Broad  Presbytery  to  in- 
augurate comprehensive  country  service  and  test  its 
ideas  of  demonstration  parishes,  Miss  Goodrich's  ex- 
perience and  knowledge  were  urgently  needed  and  she 
was  transferred  to  the  Home  Board. 


CHURCH  AND  MOUNTAINEERS        199 

The  Rev.  W.  E.  Finley,  D.D.,  a  missionary  for 
many  years  in  that  presbytery,  became  supervisor  of 
the  new  form  of  work.  Together  he  and  Miss  Good- 
rich have  opened  up  new  stations,  secured  funds  for 
developing  them  and  made  the  whole  plan  a  marked 
success. 

Laurel  Hospital.  The  most  substantial  achieve- 
ment in  this  work  has  been  the  establishing  of  the 
Laurel  Hospital  at  White  Rock,  North  Carolina.  The 
task,  under  the  leadership  of  Miss  Frances  L.  Good- 
rich, has  occupied  the  past  three  years.  It  is  the  cul- 
mination of  a  purpose  which  she  has  cherished  since 
she  began  her  long  period  of  service  on  the  Laurel. 
Five  years  of  medical  work  through  this  region  by  Dr. 
George  H.  Packard  prepared  the  way  for  this  fulfill- 
ment of  her  dream.  Before  then  there  had  been  no 
licensed  physician  within  sixteen  miles  of  White  Rock. 
Little  by  little  he  has  educated  the  mountain  people 
out  of  their  prejudices  and  primitive  beliefs  to  a  recog- 
nition of  the  need  of  a  physician's  care.  The  visit  to 
White  Rock  in  191 5  of  Miss  Anna  B.  Taft  gave 
impetus  to  this  building  project  and  the  first  fifteen 
hundred  dollars  toward  the  cost  was  later  given  as  a 
memorial  to  her.  The  building  stands  on  land  given 
by  two  mountain  neighbors — one  of  whom  owes  his 
life  to  Dr.  Packard's  skill.  The  actual  construction 
was  begun  in  April,  191 7,  and  has  proceeded  without 
a  cent  of  debt  and  without  burdening  the  regular  re- 
sources of  the  Board's  income.  The  staff  moved  into 
the  hospital  quarters  in  May,  191Q.  The  final  cost 
of  the  building  is  little  less  than  thirty-five  thousand 
dollars,  and  its  equipment  is  so  complete  that  it  insures 
adequate    facilities    for   a    permanent    and    eflfective 


200  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

health  service  not  only  to  this  Laurel  region  but  to  the 
whole  of  Madison  County. 

The  plan  of  Demonstration  Parishes  thus  begun  in 
this  presbytery  has  now  been  inaugurated  in  eighteen 
presbyteries  from  North  Carolina  to  Washington. 
There  were  in  1918  fifty  such  parishes.  They  provide 
adequate  pastoral  service  and  adequate  equipment  for 
localities  unable  to  provide  them  for  themselves ;  and 
they  are  meant  to  prove  an  example  to  all  country 
churches  of  that  region.  In  general,  the  plan  secures 
a  resident  pastor,  an  undivided  field  in  which  that  pas- 
tor serves  the  whole  community  and  for  a  period  long 
enough  to  prove  the  value  of  the  work.  It  is  in  line 
with  the  modern  idea  of  service  without  competition, 
and  so  far  wherever  undertaken  it  has  demonstrated 
its  success. 


,^i^^ 

In^^ 

Bri-^ifg^  --.-am' B^^^ 

^ 

npw^ 

Community  Headquarters,  White  Rock.  Xorth  Caroliii; 


^ 

B^IMBj^BffiBBB^^^pMW 

^wH 

HHH^^H^^^^^HR^^^i^^— ' 

'     '■H^^H 

'■^H^^^"'-                           '^^sSHJll 

^1 

BK^             ^  ^^^^^BHI^HiiJ^HHHHii^HiHIHBBHHi 

hbi 

Laurel  Hospital,  White  Rock,   Xorth  Carolina. 


Southern   Mi)umaineer'>   iiunie. 


X 

SPANISH-SPEAKING  PEOPLE 

IN  introducing  the  consideration  of  our  mission 
work  in  the  Antilles,  it  is  worth  while  to  note  the 
impressions  and  conclusions  of  the  Panama  Con- 
gress of  Christian  Workers,  which  have  been  summed 
up  by  Dr.  Harlan  P.  Beach  of  Yale  University,  as  fol- 
laws: 

General  Conditions  in  Latin  America.  "Roman 
Catholicism  in  varying  degrees  preserves  the  aspect  of 
a  state  religion  and  professes  to  occupy  adequately  all 
of  Latin  America,  for  which  it  desires  to  assume  sole 
religious  responsibilty  —  resenting  and  opposing  the 
proffered  help  of  Evangelical  churches.  Scientific  can- 
dor, based  on  the  best  testimony  of  Roman  Catholic 
and  Protestant  sources,  compels  the  belief  that  the 
Latin  Church  is  unable  to  do  for  those  republics  what 
their  inhabitants  need  to  see  accomplished.  Its  priests, 
with  few  notable  exceptions,  are  discredited  with  the 
thinking  classes.  Its  moral  life  is  weak  and  its  spir- 
itual witness  faint.  It  is  weighed  with  medisevalism 
and  other  non-Christian  accretions." 

The  facts  thus  cited  and  a  multitude  of  other  and 
similar  facts  forced  on  the  Christian  mind  of  North 
America  the  conclusion  that  the  foundations  laid  and 
the  moral  and  religious  superstructure  erected  in  Latin 
America  would  not  meet  the  fundamental  conditions 
of  free  government  as,  of  course,  they  would  not  ad- 

201 


'202  THE  SOUIv  OF  AMERICA 

vance  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  people.  When  the 
extensive  and  thorough  survey  which  the  Panama  Con- 
gress inaugurated  was  completed  it  became  alarmingly 
evident  that  for  the  conservation  of  democratic  ideals 
on  this  continent  there  must  be  an  intellectual  and  moral 
uplift  of  Latin  America.  Not  alone  did  North  America 
realize  this  fact.  Political  as  well  as  Christian  workers 
in  South  America  confessed  it. 

The  Spanish-American  War  opened  new  doors  for 
the  Board  of  Home  Missions.  The  guns  of  the  Battle 
of  Santiago  revealed  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  as  home 
missionary  opportunities. 

Approach  to  Porto  Rico.  When  General  Miles 
landed  on  the  western  coast  of  Porto  Rico  with  his  lit- 
tle American  Army  he  found  an  army  wholly  unnec- 
essary, for  the  people  turned  out  to  greet  his  soldiers 
as  deliverers  and  to  welcome  the  flag  which  they  car- 
ried. At  about  the  same  time  several  denominations 
considered  it  their  duty  to  enter  this  new  and  inviting 
field.  Mission  Board  secretaries  of  four  communions 
— Baptist,  Congregational,  Methodist  and  Presbyterian, 
met  to  consider  the  enterprise  on  which  they  were  about 
to  enter  as  that  of  a  single  and  united  purpose  to  pro- 
claim the  Gospel  of  Christ  to  a  million  of  Spanish- 
speaking  people  to  whom  that  gospel  would  come  as  a 
glad  surprise. 

Comity  in  Plans.  They  mapped  ofif  the  Island  and 
agreed  upon  a  territorial  division.  The  Congregation- 
alists  chose  the  eastern  end  of  the  Island,  the  Presby- 
terians the  western  end,  the  Methodists  and  Baptists 
the  two  sections  covering  the  remainder  of  the  Island. 
So  they  purposed  to  work  not  only  without  conflict  but 
in  entire  harmony  to  manifest  to  the  population,  accus- 


SPANISH-SPEAKING  PEOPLE  203 

tomed  to  the  boastful  unity  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  the  essential  unity  of  the  Protestantism  our 
missionaries  were  there  to  advance. 

Since  then  several  other  denominations  have  come 
into  the  Island,  but  all  under  the  general  agreement 
that  there  should  be  no  overlapping  of  missionary  ef- 
forts. The  agreement  has  been  substantially  kept  to 
the  present  time  and  a  spirit  of  comity,  approaching 
now  an  act  of  federation,  has  ruled  in  all  the  counsels 
and  actions  of  the  respective  Boards. 

The  first  two  Presbyterian  missions  were  located, 
one  at  San  Juan,  the  Capital — and  so,  by  the  compact, 
free  to  all  denominations — and  the  other  at  Mayaguez, 
which  grew  to  be  the  center  of  the  Presbyterian  work 
on  the  western  side  of  the  Island.  Dr.  J.  Milton  Greene 
was  put  in  charge  of  the  work  at  San  Juan  and  under 
his  energetic  leadership  it  was  not  long  before  a  sub- 
stantial church  was  built  and  a  large  congregation  gath- 
ered. More  missionaries  were  sent  down  in  succeeding 
years  because  the  response  of  the  people  to  the  gospel 
message  was  suggestive  of  a  great  opportunity  of  which 
instant  advantage  should  be  taken.  Many  mission  sta- 
tions were  opened  along  the  coast  and  up  into  the  hills 
with  always  the  same  result  of  full  houses  and  earnest 
inquirers.  In  19 19  seven  American  missionaries  and 
thirty-eight  native  helpers  trained  in  the  Theological 
School  at  Mayaguez  were  serving  the  various  districts 
assigned  to  Presbyterians. 

Educational  Question.  The  educational  question 
early  began  to  press  on  the  mind  of  the  Church  as  well 
as  the  Government.  When  Porto  Rico  passed  under 
American  control  there  was  not  a  school  building 
erected  for  that  purpose  anywhere  in  the  Island.    But 


204  'I'HE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

the  people  manifested  a  hunger  for  education  and  so, 
under  the  direction  of  the  Woman's'  Board,  at  that 
time  a  department  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions,  a 
number  of  mission  schools  were  opened.  The  school 
work,  it  was  soon  found,  needed  to  be  supplemented 
by  community  service.  In  the  Marina  part  of  Maya- 
guez  a  mission  school  was  begun  in  1901.  In  1907  its 
functions  were  enlarged  so  that  a  day  nursery — the 
first  on  the  Island — was  added  to  its  equipment.  In- 
dustrial work  on  a  small  scale  is  also  carried  on.  Part 
of  the  mission  was  destroyed  by  the  earthquake  in 
1918 ;  but  the  work  goes  on, — a  source  of  great  bless- 
ing to  a  very  needy  section  of  the  city. 

In  Aguadilla,  where  one  of  the  first  schools  had  been 
established,  a  like  extension  of  work  has  been  found 
necessary.  In  191 1  a  new  building  was  erected  for  the 
school  and  teachers'  home.  An  industrial  department, 
a  kindergarten,  day  nursery  and  day  and  evening 
classes  completed  the  equipment. 

Early  in  the  progress  of  work  in  the  Island  a  valu- 
able property  was  secured  for  church  and  school  pur- 
poses at  the  Capital  and  called  the  Hugh  O'Neill  Me- 
morial. Recently  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  united 
with  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church — the  two  occupy- 
ing the  commodious  building  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church.  The  work  at  the  Memorial  Church  is 
continued  for  the  native  church  and  an  important  com- 
munity service  reaches  the  hemes  of  the  Porto  Ricans 
in  that  dense  part  of  the  city. 

Polytechnic  Institute.  But  this  primary  education 
was  not  sufficient.  Porto  Ricans  had  an  appetite  for 
fuller  preparation  for  their  life  work.  In  1910  the  Rev. 
J.  Will  Harris  opened  an  industrial  school  at  San  Ger- 


President's  New  Home,  Polytechnic  Institute,  San  German, 
Porto  Rico. 


Class  in  Physics,  Polytechnic  Institute,  San  German, 
Porto  Rico. 


SPANISH-SPEAKING  PEOPLE  205 

man,  a  beautifully  stiuated  town  twelve  miles  from 
Mayaguez.  The  school  rapidly  outgrew  both  its  sched- 
ule and  its  appointments.  With  the  hearty  endorse- 
ment of  the  Educational  Department  of  the  Govern- 
ment Mr.  Harris  appealed  to  friends  in  the  North  and 
to  the  Porto  Ricans.  In  both  directions  the  response 
was  encouraging.  One  hundred  and  fifty  pupils  of 
both  sexes  availed  themselves  of  its  privileges.  With 
the  help  of  the  *'boys"  large  and  commodious  buildings 
are  being  erected,  the  curriculum  is  enlarged  to  meet 
the  increasing  demands  and  an  endowment  is  now  be- 
ing sought  toward  which  the  people  of  Porto  Rico  ex- 
pect to  raise  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  It  is  now 
named  the  Polytechnic  Institute  and  is  supported  and 
patronized  by  people  of  all  the  denominations  having 
missions  on  the  Island. 

Training  School.  As  In  foreign  missions,  so  in 
Porto  Rico,  the  Presbyterian  Church  early  perceived 
the  necessity  of  raising  up  a  native  ministry  into  whose 
hands  the  entire  work  could  soon  be  transferred. 
Mayaguez  was  selected  as  the  location  and  the  Rev.  J. 
A.  McAllister  was  chosen  to  superintend  it.  It  has  had 
a  striking  history.  As  many  as  twenty-five  students 
have  at  one  time  been  within  its  walls  and  it  has  gradu- 
ated nearly  all  the  native  missionaries  now  in  the  serv- 
ice. The  earthquake  in  1918  seriously  damaged  the  fine 
building  which  houses  the  school,  but  the  school  con- 
tinued its  regular  course  undisturbed  by  the  repeated 
reminders  which  followed  the  first  shock.  In  this 
school  also  the  various  denominations  cooperate.  The 
spirit  of  fraternity  prevailing  in  all  branches  of  the 
great  missionary  undertaking  is  one  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful and  encouraging  signs  of  the  times. 


2o6       .      THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

Thus  the  educational  system  which  found  the  Island 
without  any  schools  has  developed  from  the  little  mis- 
sion class  among  the  hills  to  higher  education  reaching 
up  to  academy  and  theological  grades. 

San  Juan  Hospital.  It  was  not  long  before  the  sad 
physical  condition  of  the  natives  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  the  missionaries  and  in  1901  a  hospital  was 
opened  by  the  Woman's  Board  at  Santurce,  a  suburb 
of  San  Juan.  In  1904  three  buildings  were  dedicated. 
These  were  soon  thronged  with  patients.  It  was  rec- 
ognized as  the  leading  hospital  of  the  Island.  It  soon 
outgrew  its  accommodations  and  in  1917  a  fine  and 
thoroughly  equipped  new  hospital  building  was  dedi- 
cated, in  which  now  many  thousands  find  relief  and 
healing  every  year.  The  new  dispensary  is  capable 
of  treating  three  thousand  out-patients  each  month.  It 
has  a  training  school  where  many  Porto  Rican  nurses 
and  probationers  are  trained  for  service.  As  they 
graduate  they  fall  into  the  hospital  staff  or  serve  as 
district  nurses  throughout  the  Island.  Miss  Jennie 
Ordway  has  been  superintendent  from  the  first  and  Dr. 
E.  Raymond  Hildreth  now  since  1906  has  been  the 
resident  physician. 

In  order  that  swift  medical  and  surgical  help  might 
also  be  given  the  western  side  of  the  Island  near  the 
many  home  mission  stations  a  small  hospital  was  opened 
at  Mayaguez.  This,  named  the  Rye  Hospital,  was 
transferred  from  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  to  the 
Woman's  Board  and  was  so  seriously  damaged  by  the 
earthquake  that  service  there  has  been  suspended. 

The  report  of  the  year  1918  Indicates  that  the  work 
of  the  Presbyterian  Boards  is  firmly  established  along 


SPANISH-SPEAKING  PEOPLE  207 

the  three  lines  indicated,  namely,  evangelistic,  educa- 
tional and  medical. 

Early  in  the  missionary  history  of  Porto  Rico,  as 
might  have  been  expected  from  the  compact  entered 
into  by  the  four  leading  denominations  who  first  es- 
tablished mission  work  there,  a  strong  tendency  toward 
close  fellowship  between  the  different  bodies  mani- 
fested itself.  The  steps  looking  to  closer  federation 
may  best  be  presented  here  in  the  report  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Cooperation  in  Latin  America,  formed  to 
continue  the  work  outlined  at  the  Panama  Congress. 
This  report  was  presented  to  the  Home  Missions  Coun- 
cil at  its  Annual  Meeting  in  January,  1918,  and  may  be 
summarized  as  follows: 

An  Evangelical  Union.  An  Evangelical  Union 
has  been  formed  which  more  closely  unites  the  evan- 
gelical forces  in  the  Island.  A  union  printing  plant  has 
been  establshed,  making  the  Presbyterian  paper, 
Puerto  Rico  Bvangclico,  serve  equally  all  the  denomi- 
nations. A  series  of  evangelistic  meetings  maintained 
jointly  by  all  the  Societies  doing  work  in  the  Island  is 
continued  from  year  to  year  with  most  important  re- 
sults. There  is  working  harmony  in  the  support  of 
educational  institutions.  Three  mission  institutions 
maintained  by  three  denominations  have  made  provi- 
sion for  pupils  from  all  missionary  bodies. 

The  most  advanced  step  now  being  taken  in  joint 
work  relates  to  the  founding  of  an  interdenominational 
training  school.  This  is  the  most  pressing  need  of  the 
field  and  will  doubtless  soon  be  realized. 

Four  bodies  are  now  considering  the  question  of  or- 
ganic union,  the  United  Brethren,  the  Presbyterian,  the 
Congregational  and  the  Disciples. 


2o8  THE  SOUIv  OF  AMERICA 

Mission  to  Santo  Domingo.  One  of  the  most  in- 
teresting missionary  signs  is  the  movement  of  the  na- 
tive churches  to  estabHsh  a  mission  in  the  neighboring 
Island  of  Santo  Domingo.  There  are  thousands  of 
Porto  Ricans  in  that  Island  and  the  home  churches  are 
intensely  interested  in  sending  the  gospel  to  their  less 
favored  brethren.  It  is  believed  that  a  plan  will  soon 
be  worked  out  on  which  the  various  Societies  may 
agree  and  that  from  Porto  Rico  a  joint  effort  will  be 
made  to  evangelize  Santo  Domingo. 

The  statistics  of  the  mission  work  in  Porto  Rico  last 
reported  to  the  General  Assembly  indicate  that  there 
are  twenty-seven  missionaries  in  charge  of  thirty-three 
churches  with  two  thousand  three  hundred  and  six 
communicants. 

Beginning  in  Cuba.  Home  mission  work  in  Cuba 
was  begun  in  1902.  Dr.  Greene,  who  had  been  for 
some  years  Superintendent  in  Porto  Rico,  was  trans- 
ferred to  Cuba  to  have  charge  of  the  new  enterprise 
there.  He  found  the  conditions  much  the  same  as  those 
he  had  met  in  Porto  Rico  with  perhaps  less,  however, 
of  Americanism  inasmuch  as  the  Republic  was  not  a 
part  of  the  American  Union.  Development  of  the  work 
has  been  slower,  but  in  both  schools  and  evangelistic 
services  there  has  been  a  steady  progress.  Several  of 
the  stations  have  good  church  and  school  buildings. 

In  1918  Dr.  Greene  retiring  from  the  service  the 
Rev.  E.  A.  Odell,  who  had  been  his  successor  in  Porto 
Rico,  was  transferred  to  the  superintendency  in  Cuba. 
The  most  notable  advance  in  this  Island  is  in  the  spirit 
of  comity  and  cooperation  which  has  seized  on  all  the 
communions. 


SPANISH-SPEAKING  PEOPLE  209 

Immediately  following  the  Panama  Congress  in  1916 
a  Regional  Conference  was  held  in  Havana  which 
formed  a  "Committee  of  Conference  in  Cuba"  to  fos- 
ter interdenominational  cooperation.  Its  first  work 
was  a  survey  of  the  evangelical  situation  in  the  Island. 
The  result  was  a  comprehensive  program  for  all  phases 
of  evangelical  work.    The  following  steps  were  taken: 

Cooperative  Plans.  The  question  of  a  Union  Theo- 
logical Training  School  was  discussed  and  awaits  defi- 
nite action  at  a  later  date. 

A  union  literature  depository  was  established  and  a 
union  paper  was  planned  for. 

A  social  service  program  was  also  outlined,  involving 
settlement  work  in  cities,  extension  of  the  Playground 
Movement,  enlistment  of  social  workers  in  humani- 
tarian and  other  enterprises  of  the  Evangelical  Church, 
and  also  industrial  training  in  the  mission  schools. 

An  Evangelistic  Committee  similar  to  the  one  in 
Porto  Rico  was  also  formed. 

The  union  movement  in  Cuba  has  not  advanced  as 
rapidly  as  in  Porto  Rico.  It  has  encountered  peculiar 
difficulties.  But  the  signs  are  bright  for  a  more  rapid 
advance  in  the  future.  In  one  respect  the  movement 
toward  Church  union  has  been  more  pronounced  in 
Cuba  than  in  Porto  Rico.  They  have  not,  indeed,  ad- 
vanced so  far  in  the  discussion  of  plans  of  federation 
as  in  the  sister  Island,  but  instead  of  increasing  they 
have  reduced  the  number  of  denominations  at  work. 

In  1908  the  Home  Missionary  Society  of  the  Congre- 
gational Church  decided  that  the  Presbyterians  could 
take  over  their  work  without  any  loss  for  the  Kingdom 
while  they  would  thus  be  set  free  to  do  a  larger  service 
in  some  other  place.  The  Presbyterian  Church,  there- 
14 


2IO  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

fore,  assumed  the  responsibility  of  the  work  that  had 
belonged  to  the  Congregational  Society.  In  191 7  the 
work  of  the  Foreign  Christian  Missionary  Society  of 
the  Church  of  the  Disciples  was  transferred  to  the 
Presbyterian  Board.  It  consisted  of  churches  at 
Matanzas  and  Union,  with  several  small  connecting 
missions.  In  1918  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church 
turned  over  all  its  work  to  the  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions, save  only  a  large  school  which  they  are  conduct- 
ing at  Cardenas.  The  work  thus  transferred  consists 
of  nine  organizations  with  seven  hundred  and  sixteen 
church  members. 

The  Cardenas  school  which  now  is  the  crown  of  the 
educational  system  of  the  Northern  and  Southern  Pres- 
byterians, continues  to  be  supported  by  the  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Southern 
Church.  It  continues  under  the  principalship  of  the 
Rev.  R.  L.  Wharton,  who  by  the  union  arrangement  is 
superintendent  of  all  the  school  work  in  Cuba  under 
the  Woman's  Board.  This  is  a  good  illustration  of  the 
spirit  of  cooperation,  as  there  is  no  finer  work  than  that 
which  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church  was  doing. 

Mexicans 

By  the  treaty  with  Mexico  in  1848  there  came  to 
us  an  unnumbered  alien  element  of  Spanish  and  In- 
dian blood,  an  element  alien  in  speech,  in  customs, 
in  tradition,  in  religion  and  in  thought.  Their  out- 
standing characteristic  was  the  lack  of  initiative,  sharp- 
ly separating  them  from  the  body  of  people  of  which 
they  were  henceforth  to  form  a  part.  This  lack 
of  initiative  was  not  due  to  intellectual  inferiority,  for 
in  their  veins  ran  the  blood  of  the  greatest  pioneers  the 


SPANISH-SPEAKING  PEOPLE  211 

world  has  ever  known;  but  it  was  due  to  a  system  of 
intellectual  and  spiritual  servitude  that  crushed  the  in- 
dividual mind  and  aspirations. 

The  population  that  thus  came  to  us  by  the  fortunes 
of  war  was  largely  of  the  peon  class,  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  large  land  owners  in  Colorado  and  New 
Mexico  and  a  large  number  of  the  old  families  in  Cali- 
fornia. 

In  religion,  in  agriculture,  in  every  department  of 
human  activity,  their  morale  was  that  of  the  mass  and 
their  eyes  ever  upon  their  leaders.  Under  the  new 
order  they  came  in  contact  with  the  most  aggressive 
and  the  worst  elements  of  our  American  life.  For  four 
hundred  years  they  had  been  taught  to  fear  and  hate 
everything  that  savored  of  Protestantism,  and  their 
contact  with  American  adventurers  and  outlaws  did  not 
tend  to  soften  their  prejudices. 

But  at  the  middle  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  a  new 
day  began  to  dawn. 

Beginning.  The  first  Protestant  Church  to  enter 
New  Mexico  was  the  Baptist.  The  Rev.  Samuel  Gor- 
man, the  first  missionary  to  the  Pueblo  Indians  in  1854, 
erected  in  Santa  Fe  the  first  Protestant  Church  in  New 
Mexico.  The  Civil  War  came  soon  after  and  the  work 
was  abandoned. 

The  Congregationalists  began  school  work  for  Mexi- 
can children  in  1888.  In  about  fifteen  years  they  estab- 
lished six  schools  with  about  four  hundred  pupils. 
Their  evangelistic  work  has  been  inconsiderable,  reg- 
istering only  a  few  native  evangelists  and  a  few  native 
churches. 

The  Methodist  Church  entered  New  Mexico  in  1850. 
For  several  years  the  work  was  discouraging.    In  1855 


212  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

a  superintendent  was  sent  to  examine  and  report  on 
the  field.  This  visit,  however,  led  to  no  results  and 
the  small  beginnings  that  had  been  made  in  a  few  places 
were  given  up.  In  1866,  however,  a  Methodist 
preacher  called  "Father  Dyer"  on  a  horseback  ride 
through  New  Mexico,  found  such  alarming  moral  con- 
ditions that  he  wrote  stirring  appeals  in  Church  papers 
which  induced  the  General  Conference  in  1868  to  make 
New  Mexico  a  district  in  the  Colorado  Conference  and 
to  appoint  Father  Dyer  presiding  elder.  This  was  the 
beginning  of  an  enlarging  work.  They  now  have  many 
church  buildings,  prosperous  schools  and  a  growing 
church  membership. 

The  first  Presbyterian  missionary  to  New  Mexico 
seems  to  have  been  the  Rev.  W.  J.  Kephart,  who  went 
to  Santa  Fe  in  1850.  The  first  sermon  known  to  have 
been  preached  by  a  Presbyterian  missionary  in  the  capi- 
tal city  was  in  November,  1866.  It  was  given  in  the 
Senate  Chamber,  on  the  same  day,  the  first  Protestant 
Sabbath  school  in  New  Mexico  held  its  session.  The 
missionary  was  the  Rev.  D.  F.  McFarland,  who  had 
been  sent  out  under  commission  of  the  Board  of  Do- 
mestic Missions.  He  organized  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Santa  Fe  on  January  thirteenth,  1867,  with 
twelve  members. 

In  June,  1868,  the  Presbytery  of  Santa  Fe  was  or- 
ganized. 

"Father  o£  Mexican  Work."  A  man  who  has  been 
called  the  "Father  of  our  Mexican  work"  was  the  Rev. 
John  A.  Annin,  who  opened  a  mission  at  Las  Vegas  in 
1869.  There  he  met  a  young  Mexican  who  greeted  him 
with  these  words,  "I  have  been  praying  for  a  mission- 
ary.   You  can  depend  on  me  for  anything  I  can  do." 


SPANISH-SPEAKING  PEOPLE         21.^ 

They  became  fast  friends  and  partners  in  a  large  ad- 
vance in  mission  work  in  the  following  years.  But  the 
results  have  been  worth  while.  The  evangelistic  work 
reported  in  191 8  was  represented  by  three  presbyteries 
with  an  enrollment  of  fifty-one  ministers,  sixty-five 
churches  and  twenty-nine  hundred  communicants. 

School  Work.  The  school  work  has  from  the  first 
been  under  the  direction  of  the  Woman's  Board  of 
Home  Missions.  It  was  early  recognized  that  only  by 
Christian  education  could  good  foundations  be  laid. 
But  it  was  difficult  work.  Hoary  superstitions  must 
be  met  and  prejudices  overcome  and  a  foreign  language 
be  learned.  But  these  difficulties  vanished  under  the 
splendid  enthusiasm  of  the  consecrated  young  women 
sent  out  by  the  Board  to  open  plaza  schools  in  scores 
of  villages.  In  the  face  of  opposition,  often  amounting 
to  persecution,  the  brave  band  found  nothing  too  hard 
but  pressed  on,  winning  victories  over  the  worst  condi- 
tions and  the  most  determined  resistance.  The  light 
began  to  break  among  the  Mexicans.  The  children 
went  back  to  their  homes  with  a  new  vision,  and  the 
homes  themselves  took  on  some  appearance  of  order 
and  comfort. 

But  the  plaza  school  implied  something  more.  For 
many  pupils  the  elementary  education  only  created  an 
appetite  for  more  education.  So  the  Woman's  Board 
founded  schools  for  a  higher  education.  The  first  was 
the  Allison  School  at  Santa  Fe,  named  after  a  beloved 
teacher.  Miss  Matilda  L.  Allison  reached  the  capital 
in  May,  1881.  The  only  property  she  found  was  an 
adobe  building,  the  wreck  of  a  small  mission  school  es- 
tablished several  years  previous.  She  repaired  the 
building  and  began.    Soon  by  help  from  New  York  she 


214  THE  SOUIv  OF  AMERICA 

was  able  to  erect  a  suitable  building  and  open  a  board- 
ing department.  From  the  first  it  was  crowded.  The 
waiting  list  grew.  In  1902  it  had  eighty  boarders  and 
one  hundred  were  sent  back  to  their  dreary  homes  be- 
cause there  was  no  room  for  them.  Here,  as  in  other 
schools  of  the  Woman's  Board,  industrial  features  so 
necessary  for  Mexican  people  were  added.  It  has 
wrought  great  changes  in  Mexican  homes.  A  super- 
intendent of  education  for  New  Mexico,  himself  a  Ro- 
man Catholic,  declared  the  Santa  Fe  school  had  done 
more  for  Mexican  girls  than  any  other  institution  in 
the  Territory.  In  honor  of  Mrs.  Darwin  R.  James,  re- 
cent President  of  the  Woman's  Board,  Miss  Allison, 
the  school  now  bears  the  title  of  the  Allison-James 
School. 

Menaul  School.  In  1886  a  boarding  school  for  boys 
and  girls  was  opened  at  Las  Vegas.  It  was  crowded 
almost  from  the  first.  In  1896  it  was  removed  to  Al- 
buquerque. Only  boys  were  admitted  and  in  honor  of 
the  Rev.  James  Menaul,  who  for  seven  years  had  been 
Synodical  Missionary  of  New  Mexico,  it  was  named 
the  Menaul  School.  The  attendance  has  constantly 
taxed  the  capacity,  some  years  hundreds  being  turned 
away.  Here,  too,  industrial  training  is  emphasized. 
The  boys  work  with  heads,  hands  and  hearts.  Many 
public  schools  in  New  Mexico  are  being  supplied  with 
teachers  from  this  school. 

Mention  should  be  made  of  the  Forsythe  Memorial 
School.  With  new  equipment  it  is  doing  a  fine  edu- 
cational work  for  the  Mexican  children  of  Los  Angeles. 

Other  schools  among  Mexicans  are  those  at  Agua 
Negra,  John  Hyson  Memorial  at  Chimayo,  Chacon, 


SPANISH-SPEAKING  PEOPLE  215 

Embudo,  Pyle  Memorial  at  Taos,  El  Prado  and  Tre- 
mentino. 

The  need  of  a  qualified  native  ministry  so  pressed 
on  the  Home  Board  that  in  1902  the  Albuquerque 
Training  School  was  established.  It  was  conducted  in 
connection  with  the  Menaul  School,  with  Dr.  Henry  C. 
Thomson  in  charge.  In  its  first  year  it  had  ten  stu- 
dents for  the  gospel  ministry.  During  the  summer 
months  the  yotmg  men  are  employed  as  evangelists 
among  their  own  people,  and  with  many  gratifying  re- 
sults. It  suggests  the  plain  way  for  the  evangelization 
of  our  rapidly  increasing  Mexican  population. 

In  Los  Angeles.  On  the  Pactific  Coast  the  work 
began  later  and  because  of  the  lack  of  prepared  men 
of  their  own  race  the  progress  has  been  slow.  Los  An- 
geles with  a  Mexican  population  of  fifty  thousand,  has 
a  strong  and  thoroughly  organized  church,  with  a  man 
of  strong  personality  and  splendid  equipment  at  its 
head.  Located  within  easy  distance  of  the  Forsythe 
Memorial  School  there  is  perfect  cooperation  between 
the  two,  and  the  pastor,  Rev.  Jose  Falcon,  is  doing 
much  to  develop  a  noble  spiritual  life  among  the  pupils. 

At  Other  Points.  Eleven  other  points  in  California 
are  occupied  by  Presbyterians;  ten  in  Arizona,  nine- 
teen in  New  Mexico,  twelve  in  Colorado  and  five 
in  Texas  are  actively  occupied  by  Presbyterian  forces. 
El  Paso  and  San  Antonio  are  the  two  strategic  points 
in  Texas.  The  former  has  a  Mexican  population  of 
fifty  thousand  and  the  strongest  and  most  progressive 
Mexican  church  in  the  Southwest. 

The  influx  of  hundreds  of  thousands  from  Mexico 
because  of  the  state  of  anarchy  that  there  prevails  has 
introduced  a  new  element  that  brings  both  anxiety  and 


2i6  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

hope.  No  nation,  and  especially  no  democracy,  can 
safely  retain  a  large  alien  element  within  its  borders. 
The  new  element  comes  with  all  the  old  prejudices,  but 
as  they  come  in  touch  with  our  schools  and  evangelical 
churches  and  experience  the  kindly  sympathy  and  help- 
fulness of  Christian  people  in  their  loneliness  and  need 
the  prejudices  disappear  and  there  is  a  rapid  absorption 
of  American  ideals. 

Since  1912  the  Rev.  Robert  McLean,  D.D.,  has  been 
the  efficient  Superintendent  of  the  whole  Mexican 
work,  but  is  now  (1919)  succeeded  by  his  son,  the  Rev. 
Robert  N.  McLean,  for  four  years  in  charge  of  the 
Spanish  Department  in  Dubuque  Seminary.  The  new 
poHcy  in  Mexican  missions  looks  to  safeguarding  our 
institutions  as  well  as  evangelizing  the  Mexicans,  hence 
English  will  be  taught  in  all  our  schools.  Prof.  Steiner 
says  in  "From  Alien  to  Citizen":  ''Blood  is  thicker 
than  water,  but  language  is  thicker  than  blood,"  and 
no  foreign-language  citizen  can  ever  be  in  harmony 
with  our  democracy. 

Castelar  said  long  ago :  "The  genius  of  America  is 
the  spirit  of  Liberty."  And  that  spirit  is  touching  with 
new  life  this  element  so  long  suppressed  but  so  great  in 
possibility. 

The  effort  to  secure  interdenominational  action  with 
reference  to  the  Spanish-speaking  people  has  not  yet 
reached  full  success.  But  steps  are  in  process  which 
later  it  is  believed  will  have  far-reaching  influence.  A 
Permanent  Interdenominational  Council  on  Spanish- 
Speaking  Work  in  the  Southwest  has  held  five  annual 
meetings.  A  survey  made  by  this  Council  reported  in 
19 1 8  that  there  was  an  increasing  Spanish  population 
and  great  need  of  more  and  stronger  missions.     An 


SPANISH-SPEAKING  PEOPLE         217 

Evangelical  Union  Church,  in  which  the  denominational 
work  should  be  merged,  was  discussed,  but  the  ma- 
jority of  the  bodies  were  not  yet  ready  for  such  a  step. 
The  Council,  however,  repeated  its  adherence  to  the 
plans  of  cooperation  already  formed.  A  union  evan- 
gelical training  school  and  an  interdenominational 
evangelical  paper  in  Spanish  were  also  considered,  but 
definite  action  was  deferred. 


XI 

WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS 

FOR  a  number  of  years  before  1877  the  Home 
Board  had  felt  that  more  should  be  done  for  the 
belated  peoples  of  our  country  than  in  the  terms 
of  its  Charter  it  felt  able  to  do.  In  the  mountains  of 
the  South  and  on  the  deserts  of  the  West  and  up  in  ice- 
bound Alaska  an  educational  work  was  calling  for 
which  the  Board  was  not  equipped. 

Women's  Societies.  From  time  to  time  the  claims 
of  these  people  on  the  help  which  only  Christian  agen- 
cies could  give  were  pressed  on  the  Assembly.  In  1876 
it  took  the  forward  step  by  recommending  the  organi- 
zation of  Women's  Missionary  Societies  in  the  churches 
"for  such  help  as  Christian  women  might  be  able  to 
give  to  these  stranded  populations."  Special  funds  for 
school  work  having  come  into  the  hands  of  the  Board, 
teachers  were  sent  to  Utah  to  open  schools  under  the 
supervision  of  missionaries.  In  1877  the  school  work 
of  the  Board  was  formally  inaugurated.  In  December 
of  that  year  sixteen  teachers  were  appointed  with  sal- 
aries amounting  to  fifty-four  hundred  dollars,  which 
sum  the  women  of  the  Church  were  asked  to  raise. 

The  Assembly  fully  approved  this  forward  move- 
ment and  recognized  it  as  a  distinct  department  of  the 
Board.  We  copy  from  Dr.  Wilson  Phraner's  account 
of  the  organization  of  the  Woman's  Board  as  follows: 

218 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  219 

"In  the  years  preceding,  and  especially  since  the  re- 
union, several  local  women's  missionary  societies  had 
been  formed,  such  as  the  Woman's  Missionary  Society 
of  New  York,  organized  in  1861,  of  which  Mrs.  Dore- 
mus  was  president,  also  the  Santa  Fe  Missionary  Asso- 
ciation, and  the  Board  of  the  Southwest  and  the  Long 
Island  Women's  Missionary  Society.  These  were 
carrying  on  work  independently  of  each  other,  and  of 
the  Assembly,  both  in  the  home  and  foreign  fields.  But 
a  convention  of  women  specially  interested  in  the  home 
field  was  held  at  Pittsburgh  in  connection  with  the 
meeting  of  the  Assembly  in  1878,  at  which  a  committee 
of  twelve  representative  women  from  different  parts  of 
the  Church  was  appointed  to  bring  together,  if  possible, 
these  several  local  societies  and  interest  them  in  this 
great  work  among  the  exceptional  populations  of  our 
land.  This  committee  met  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
and,  after  a  comparison  of  views,  it  was  found  that 
some  specially  favored  the  home,  while  others  pre- 
ferred the  foreign  field.  As  in  their  deliberations  this 
fact  became  apparent  the  hope  of  union  in  one  effort 
and  in  one  field  was  abandoned.  But  although  the  rep- 
resentatives of  these  several  societies  could  not  see 
their  way  clear  to  union  and  cooperation  as  one  organi- 
zation, yet,  from  their  meeting  and  conference  together, 
came  new  aspiration  and  impulse  to  the  women  of  the 
Church,  and  from  that  time  our  women's  work  has 
come  to  the  front,  and  become  a  leading  feature  in  all 
departments  of  our  Church  work. 

Organization.  ''On  December  12,  1878,  the  com- 
mittee appointed  at  Pittsburgh  together  with  those  who 
had  been  designated  by  some  of  the  synods,  met  in  the 
Bible  House,  New  York  City,  and  organized  the  Worn- 


220  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

en's  Executive  Committee  of  Home  Missions,  auxiliary 
to  our  Board  of  Home  Missions,  since  1897  known  as 
the  Woman'g  Board  of  Home  Missions.  Mrs.  Ash- 
bel  Green  was  elected  president  and  Mrs.  F.  E.  H. 
Haines  and  Mrs.  A.  R.  Walsh  were  chosen  secretaries. 
The  object  of  the  organization  was  to  cooperate  with 
the  Board  of  Home  Missions  in  work  on  behalf  of  our 
exceptional  populations.  After  consultation  with  the 
Board  as  to  plans  and  methods  of  work,  they  adopted 
the  following  program  as  outlining  and  defining  their 
branch  of  work: 

''First.  That  the  Women's  Executive  Commitee  co- 
operate with  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and  under- 
take no  work  without  the  Board's  approval. 

"Second.  That  the  objects  aimed  at  by  the  committee 
shall  be  first,  to  diffuse  information  regarding  mission 
work;  second,  to  unify  as  far  as  possible  women's 
work  for  home  missions;  third,  to  raise  money  for 
teachers'  salaries  and  for  general  home  mission  pur- 
poses ;  fourth,  to  superintend  the  preparation  and  dis- 
tribution of  home  missionary  boxes;  fifth,  to  secure 
aid  and  comfort  for  home  missionaries  and  missionary 
laborers  in  special  cases  of  affliction  and  destitution." 

Incorporation.  The  great  work  thus  outHned  was 
carried  on  as  a  department  of  the  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions with  ever  increasing  success.  In  1914  steps  were 
taken  looking  to  the  incorporation  of  the  Woman's 
Board  as  a  separate  agency.  Report  of  it  was  made  to 
the  Assembly  of  191 5,  in  which  it  gave  the  object  of 
incorporation  to  be  the  carrying  on  "the  work  of  mis- 
sions through  schools,  hospitals  and  educational  insti- 
tutions generally  in  connection  with  and  auxiliary  to 
the  work  nov/  being  carried  on  by  the  Board  of  Home 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  221 

Missions.  Also  to  receive,  take  charge  of  and  disburse 
all  property  and  funds  which  at  any  time  and  from  time 
to  time  may  be  entrusted  to  said  Board  for  its  mission- 
ary or  educational  purposes." 

Under  this  Charter  the  Woman's  Board  is  now  push- 
ing on  its  ever  enlarging  plans.  By  its  thorough  or- 
ganization it  reaches  through  synodical  societies,  which 
in  turn  are  composed  of  presbyterial  women's  mission- 
ary societies  and  local  societies  known  by  various 
names  and  including  the  women,  children  and  young 
people  of  the  Church,  a  constituency  of  more  than  three 
hundred  fifty  thousand. 

In  preceding  chapters  we  have  given  details  of  edu- 
cational and  medical  work  conducted  by  the  women 
while  their  Board  was  an  auxiliary  of  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions.  In  order  to  give,  so  far  as  possible, 
a  connected  story  we  gave  in  detail  the  work  thus  car- 
ried on  from  1878  to  1915,  when  the  Board  became  a 
separate  organization.  These  phases  of  the  work  con- 
tinue to  be  stressed  as  heretofore. 

Policy.  The  policy  of  the  Board  so  incorporated 
may  be  briefly  stated  as  follows : 

1.  The  establishment  of  day  schools  in  sections 
where  there  is  a  genuine  educational  need,  and  the 
gradual  withdrawal  of  these  and  the  substitution  of 
community  work  therefor,  as  soon  as  the  public  school 
development  is  such  as  to  meet  the  requirements,  the 
principle  of  coooperation  and  not  competition  with  the 
public  school  being  always  kept  in  the  foreground. 

2.  The  maintenance  of  boarding  schools  for  the 
training  of  Christian  leaders  in  communities  where 
normal  advantages  of  Christian  home  training  and  or- 
dinary cultural  opportunities  do  not  exist. 


222  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

3.  The  development  of  medical  work  along  the  lines 
of  constructive  philanthropy  v^^here  the  physical  needs 
of  the  people  can  be  met  in  no  other  way. 

4.  The  opening  of  no  work  in  states  which  by  reason 
of  their  financial  resources,  educational  development 
and  Christian  advantages  may  reasonably  be  expected 
to  respond  effectively  to  their  educational  needs. 

But  regions  being  supplied  with  school  facilities 
needed  moral  and  spiritual  guidance  to  make  the 
schooling  of  the  most  account.  The  schoolhouse  could 
no  longer  be  the  center  of  missionary  work.  That  cen- 
ter must  be  the  home  and  the  community.  In  a  careful 
consideration  of  the  whole  matter  the  Board  concluded 
that  there  must  be  an  advance  toward  community  re- 
generation and  that  this  must  be  effected  by  the  devel- 
opment of  Christian  leadership.  The  higher  grades  of 
mission  schools  must  train  the  leaders, — the  communi- 
ties around  them  must  be  the  sphere  of  their  leadership. 

Harlan  County.  Such  a  development  of  community 
service  is  illustrated  in  the  community  plans  for  Harlan 
County,  Kentucky.  It  is  worth  while,  therefore,  to 
present  It  somewhat  fully. 

A  community  school  was  agreed  upon  to  be  located 
at  Smith  in  the  above  named  county.  It  was  opened  in 
July,  1918,  and  its  purpose  is  thus  described: 

After  the  fire  which  destroyed  the  Harlan  school 
dormitory  at  Harlan,  Kentucky,  it  was  deemed  advisa- 
ble not  to  rebuild  directly  in  Harlan  but  to  locate  at 
some  other  point  in  Harlan  County.  As  a  result  plans 
have  been  evolved  for  a  new  Harlan  County  project 
known  as  a  Community  Life  School.  This  has  as  its 
basis  community  development,  spiritual,  intellectual, 
and  economic.    To  this  end  it  is  about  to  open  a  co- 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  223 

educational  boarding  school  department  for  sixty  pu- 
pils, minimum  age  twelve,  grades  five  to  eight,  inclu- 
sive, with  one-half  day  for  academic  work,  the  other 
half  for  industrial  training,  all  instruction  to  be  of  the 
most  practical  nature  and  aimed  to  fit  students  for  their 
probable  environment,  at  the  same  time  preparing  the 
exceptionally  gifted  for  the  county  high  schools  or  other 
institutions  of  similar  grade;  it  has  already  provided 
public  school  instruction  by  assisting  in  the  develop- 
ment of  a  model  public  school  at  the  expense  of  the 
community  and  under  its  direction ;  it  plans  to  provide 
a  four  weeks'  mid-winter  extension  course  for  pupils 
so  environed  that  longer  attendance  is  impossible,  and 
a  four  weeks'  course  along  Denmark  folk  school  lines 
for  adults,  both  married  and  single;  It  maintains  ex- 
tension work  during  suitable  seasons  and  in  varying 
neighboring  communities  along  general  lines  of  work ; 
it  provides  through  the  nurse  and  home  science  teacher 
an  instructive  program  of  sanitation  and  medical  relief 
for  as  wide  an  area  as  is  feasible ;  it  develops  and  main- 
tains Sunday  schools  and  Bible  classes  at  as  many 
points  in  the  immediate  vicinity  as  can  be  covered  from 
the  central  plant  and  promotes  the  religious  growth  of 
the  general  community  by  every  practicable  means. 
Great  stress  is  laid  upon  a  policy  of  cooperation  with 
the  state  and  national  forces,  that  are  now  working 
in  the  field  of  community  betterment.  The  cooperation 
of  the  State  Health  Department,  of  the  State  Agricul- 
tural Bureau  and  of  the  National  Department  of  Agri- 
culture Is  earnestly  solicited.  The  institution  serves  as 
a  center  for  demonstration  work  on  the  part  of  these 
various  agencies. 


224  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

Dorland-Bell  School.  Another  illustration  of  the 
out-reach  of  this  community  service  is  given  in  the  ex- 
tension work  at  Dorland-Bell  School  at  Hot  Springs, 
North  Carolina.  As  elsewhere  noted,  there  are  two  in- 
stitutions there — the  institute  in  the  village  and  the 
farm  two  miles  down  the  river.  It  is  proposed  to  com- 
bine the  boys'  department  at  Dorland-Bell  School  with 
the  farm,  known  as  "The  Willows,"  and  establish  a 
"Folk  School"  there.  The  general  policy  in  regard  to  it 
is  to  provide  intellectual,  aesthetic,  economic  and  spirit- 
ual stimuli  for  post-adolescent  members  of  the  commun- 
ities within  the  radius  of  the  schools'  influence  by  means 
of  short-term  courses  given  as  frequently  during  the 
year  as  conditions  warrant.  The  courses  of  instruction 
will  cover  a  very  wide  range.  In  addition  to  academic 
branches,  there  will  be  courses  in  all  kinds  of  domestic 
science,  in  sanitation  and  nursing,  in  practical  agricul- 
ture, in  citizenship,  and  in  rural  sociology.  Of  course, 
religious  organizations  will  hold  a  prominent  place.  It 
is  thought  that  the  region  to  be  served  in  western  North 
Carolina  and  eastern  Tennessee  will  be  a  territory  with 
a  radius  of  fifty  miles  from  Hot  Springs.  The  farm 
will  continue  to  be  operated  on  a  profit  basis  and  be 
made  available  in  every  way  possible  as  a  Demonstra- 
tion Farm. 

Further  extensions  of  community  service  should 
be  noted  as  follows : 

Mexican  Schools.  The  Allison-James  School  at 
Santa  Fe  has  long  proved  its  right  to  existence.  It 
has  sent  many  fine  young  girls  back  to  homes  in  the 
desert  or  the  mountain  to  brighten  and  cheer  and  ele- 
vate those  homes.  But  for  many  of  them  there  is  a 
higher  calling  if  they  are  able  to  fulfill  its  conditions. 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  225 

Trained  and  educated  Mexican  teachers  is  the  urgent 
demand  in  plaza  towns  and  remote  sections.  And  now 
more  than  ever  they  must  be  able  to  Americanize  the 
schools.  In  the  past,  schools  have  been  taught  in  Span- 
ish and  with  little  purpose  to  train  the  scholars  to  be 
intelligent  Americans.  The  Allison-James  School 
stresses  an  endeavor  to  remedy  this  defect  in  the  edu- 
cational life  of  New  Mexico.  It  is  devoting  its  energies 
to  train  teachers  and  leaders  from  among  the  Mexican 
population  itself.  The  War  has  accentuated  the  ur- 
gency of  this  need. 

A  similar  movement  is  in  progress  in  Menaul  School 
at  Albuquerque.  This  school  has  in  past  years  been 
fruitful  in  training  young  men  for  useful  lives,  as  is 
indicated  by  the  fact  that  of  the  seventy-six  graduates 
eight  are  now  ministers  of  the  gospel,  two  are  students 
for  the  ministry,  four  are  doing  missionary  work,  five 
are  school  principals  and  eleven  are  school  teachers. 
By  reason  of  the  great  inflow  of  Mexicans  into  New 
Mexico  the  capacity  of  Menaul  needs  to  be  greatly  en- 
larged and  its  equipment  strengthened. 

An  interesting  new  movement  for  Mexican  evan- 
gelization is  in  the  federation  of  various  denomina- 
tions doing  missionary  work  among  the  Mexican  peo- 
ple, by  which  a  common  program,  pushed  unitedly  by 
all  the  societies,  will  mean  swift  results  where  for  gen- 
erations they  have  been  lamentably  slow. 

The  Islands.  Similar  progress  is  to  be  noted  in  the 
Islands.  In  no  place  is  there  a  louder  call  for  com- 
munity service  than  in  Porto  Rico, — and  perhaps  in  no 
place  in  Porto  Rico  more  than  in  xA^guadilla  and  Maya- 
guez,  so  severely  shaken  by  recent  earthquake  shocks. 
With  inadequate  equipment  the  faithful  workers  there, 
15 


226  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

stirred  by  the  awful  sufferings  the  people  have  under- 
gone, have  been  tireless  in  their  personal  ministries  and 
in  clubs  and  classes  for  all  kinds  of  service  to  the  often 
homeless  people.  When  the  neighborhood  houses, 
which  they  now  see  only  in  vision,  shall  become  em- 
bodied facts  they  will  open  the  door  to  the  Kingdom 
for  a  sorely  suffering  community. 

The  work  in  Cuba  has  entered  on  a  new  stage.  The 
Woman's  Board  had  for  many  years  conducted  three 
important  schools, — the  Kate  Plumer  Bryan  Memorial 
at  Guines,  opened  in  1903,  the  Sancti  Spiritus  School, 
begun  in  1904,  and  the  school  at  Nueva  Paz,  opened  in 
1904.  But  in  1918  the  Board  took  over  from  the  Board 
of  Home  Missions  and  from  the  Southern  Presby- 
terian Church  most  of  the  educational  work  which 
those  agencies  had  been  conducting.  Therefore,  the 
Woman's  Board,  which  had  been  conducting  three 
schools  on  that  Island,  is  now  responsible  for  nine 
which  vary  in  grade  from  elementary  to  full  high 
schools.  Rev.  R.  L.  Wharton,  D.D.,  the  superintend- 
ent of  all  this  school  work,  sees  a  chance  for  great  ex- 
pansion if  only  suitable  equipment  can  be  provided. 

In  Cuba^  as  in  New  Mexico  and  Porto  Rico,  a  trained 
native  leadership  is  an  absolute  essential  to  the  best 
kind  of  progress.  It  is  believed  that  the  large  school 
at  Cardenas  with  an  enrollment  of  four  hundred  will 
greatly  help  to  meet  that  need. 

Americanization,  The  women  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  have  been  especially  active  in  meeting  the  edu- 
cational and  spiritual  claims  of  the  foreigners  who  have 
come  to  our  shores.  It  is  true  the  War  has  largely  ar- 
rested their  coming.  But  it  is  also  true  that  conditions 
brought  about  by  the  War  have  made  more  insistent 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  227 

demands  on  missionary  labors.  The  Americanization 
of  foreigners  appeals  today  in  a  new  light.  For  our 
own  sake,  as  for  theirs,  we  must  rise  to  the  full  measure 
of  our  Christian  duty. 

The  Woman's  Board  has  an  Indirect  relation  to  work 
for  immigrants  whether  done  by  the  women's  societies 
alone  or  in  cooperation  with  synods  and  presbyteries. 

The  plan  of  cooperation  agreed  upon  is  as  follows : 

"(a)  Funds  to  be  expended  for  work  among  immi- 
grant populations  shall  be  sent  to  the  Treasurer  of  the 
Woman's  Board  and  shall  be  returned  at  once  to  the 
appointed  authorities;  but  shall  be  acknowledged  and 
recorded  as  a  separate  fund  and  shall  be  so  reported 
at  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year. 

''(b)  This  work  shall  not  be  budgeted  by  the  Wom- 
an's Board  and  shall  not  have  any  claim  on  the  funds 
of  said  Board.  The  amount  expended  shall  be  an  ad- 
vance over  and  above  the  sum  required  for  the  support 
of  the  national  work. 

"(c)  The  workers  shall  not  be  commissioned  but 
listed  by  the  Board,  and  it  shall  have  no  supervision  of 
such  work." 

Two  years  before  incorporation,  January,  1913,  the 
Board  took  action  looking  toward  the  training  of 
women  for  service  in  immigrant  communities,  both  as 
foreign-speaking  visitors  and  directors  of  religious,  so- 
cial and  educational  work.  In  1919  to  give  effect  to  the 
purpose  so  recorded  the  following  policy  was  adopted : 

"The  Board  proposes  to  establish  not  less  than  ten 
fellowships  of  two  hundred  fifty  dollars  a  year  to  be 
given  to  young  women,  preferably  college  graduates, 
who  shall  pursue  a  course  of  training  to  fit  them  for 
leadership  in  work  for  immigrants.     Such  candidates 


228  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

shall  be  chosen  by  the  Board  in  such  manner  as  it  may 
indicate  and  shall  be  understood  and  expected  to  ren- 
der such  service  of  leadership  in  immigrant  communi- 
ties after  the  completion  of  such  training." 

This  policy  is  now  in  process  and  will  meet  the  very 
crux  of  the  immigrant  problem, — namely,  the  Ameri- 
canization of  foreigners  by  leaders  specially  trained  for 
that  service. 

Statistics.  There  are  41  boarding  and  day  schools 
with  238  commissioned  workers  with  an  enrollment  of 
3,542.  There  are  24  community  stations  with  35  com- 
missioned workers  with  1,569  in  Sunday  school  attend- 
ance and  an  addition  of  46  to  church  membership.  In 
these  communities  these  missionaries  paid  13,687  visits. 
The  Woman's  Board  conducts  seven  hospitals  and 
medical  stations,  where  eighteen  commissioned  phy- 
sicians and  nurses  minister  to  the  healing  of  the  body 
and  to  the  spiritual  help  of  the  soul.  These  hospitals 
report  32,720  patients  and  815  operations. 

The  financial  report  for  1919  shows  a  total  of  re- 
ceipts (including  immigrant  work  and  gifts  for  the 
Freedmen)  of  $799,997.66. 

Missionary  Education.  The  great  increase  that  has 
come  to  this  branch  of  missionary  service  is  due  in  con- 
siderable measure  to  the  energy  and  capacity  with 
which  the  Board  has  pressed  the  Department  of  Mis- 
sionary Education.  Persuaded  that  interest  in  missions 
depends  on  knowledge  they  have  stressed  the  study  of 
missions  with  persistent  enthusiasm.  During  the  year, 
reporting  in  19 18,  they  listed  one  thousand  five  hun- 
dred and  seventy  mission  study  groups.  Institutes  and 
conferences  led  by  strong  representatives  have  been 


WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  229 

giving  the  claims  of  missions  in  fourteen  colleges  and 
in  summer  schools. 

Home  Mission  Monthly.  Their  literature  has 
shared  the  rapid  growth  of  other  departments,  their 
magazine,  The  Home  Mission  Monthly,  in  thirty-one 
years  of  its  existence  having  turned  forty-three  thou- 
sand dollars  into  the  treasury  of  the  Board  after  meet- 
ing every  expense  of  publication.  This  is  probably  a 
record  mark  in  the  profits  of  missionary  periodical  lit- 
erature. The  magazine  owes  much  of  its  success  to 
the  wise  management  of  its  first  editor. 

The  classes  reached  by  the  operations  of  this  Board 
are  Alaskans,  Indians,  Mexicans,  Mormons,  Moun- 
taineers, Cubans,  Porto  Ricans,  and  foreigners.  De- 
tails of  the  work  among  these  exceptional  peoples  are 
found  in  the  chapters  covering  each  class.  Statistics 
for  1919  are  as  follows: 

The  leaders.  This  statement  will  not  be  complete 
without  a  passing  mention  of  the  women  who  in  years 
gone  by  guided  this  great  enterprise  along  its  pros- 
perous way  and  who  have  now  entered  into  rest.  Mrs. 
Ashbel  Green  and  Mrs.  F.  E.  H.  Haines  were  among 
its  wise  and  devoted  founders.  Mrs.  Darwin  R.  James 
gave  many  years  of  consecrated  enthusiasm  to  her 
great  leadership.  Mrs.  Frederick  H.  Pierson  for  ten 
fruitful  years  was  accepted  throughout  the  Church  as 
an  ideal  secretary.  Mrs.  Delos  E.  Finks  was  for 
twenty-five  years  editor  of  The  Home  Mission 
Monthly,  and  during  the  first  six  years  served  also  as 
General  Secretary  of  the  Board,  her  long  association 
making  her  a  valued  counselor.  Ofiiccrs  of  more  re- 
cent years  need  not  be  specially  named.    They  all  have 


230  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

served,  or  are  serving  now,  with  the  fidelity  and  devo- 
tion without  which  the  Board  had  not  attained  the 
measure  of  usefuhiess  in  which  it  now  rejoices. 

Council  o£  Women.  The  Woman's  Board  co- 
operates not  only  with  the  other  Woman's  Boards  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  but  also  with  the  Woman's 
Boards  of  Home  Missions  of  other  denominations  in 
the  Council  of  Women  for  Home  Missions.  The  dis- 
tinct object  of  this  organization  is  "to  create  commu- 
nity, interdenominational,  Christian  fellowship  in  home 
missionary  interests ;  to  stimulate  interest  in  and  to  in- 
crease knowledge  of  home  mission  fields  and  conditions 
by  a  thorough  study  of  home  mission  textbooks  through 
study  classes  and  lectures."  For  the  carrying  out  of 
this  purpose  the  Council  has  the  following  standing 
committees:  Home  Mission  Day  of  Prayer,  Home 
Mission  Study  Courses  and  Literature,  Home  Mission 
Interests  in  Schools,  Colleges  and  Summer  Confer- 
ences, Home  Mission  Interests  Among  Children,  Home 
Mission  Interests  Among  Immigrants,  Home  Mission 
Comity  and  Cooperation,  and  Home  Mission  Summer 
Schools. 

In  addition  to  these  constituent  denominational 
Boards,  the  National  Board  of  the  Young  Women's 
Christian  Associations  and  the  National  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  are  consulting  Boards  of 
the  Council. 

General  Council.  An  achievement  in  the  direction 
of  coordination  of  the  work  of  the  Woman's  Boards 
both  Home  and  Foreign  came  about  by  a  conference 
called  in  November,  191 5,  in  Chicago.  It  was  a  fine 
gathering  of  Presbyterian  woman,  synodical  and  pres- 
byterial  presidents  and  members  of  Mission  Boards, 


f    WOMAN'S  BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  231 

leaders  from  every  part  of  the  country  expressing  a 
desire  for  cooperation. 

In  June,  1916,  at  a  meeting  in  New  York,  the  Gen- 
eral Committee  organized  the  General  Council  of 
Woman's  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America.  It  repre- 
sents six  Woman's  Boards  of  Foreign  Missions  and 
the  Woman's  Board  of  Home  Missions,  with  a  mem- 
bership in  which  these  Boards  are  equally  represented. 
Definite  policies  of  co5peration  for  the  seven  Boards 
are  now  being  worked  out,  consisting  of  recommenda- 
tions concerning  young  people's  work,  missionary  edu- 
cation, financial  matters,  publications  and  items  of  gen- 
eral interest.    Concerning  its  value  it  is  written : 

"In  a  single  generation,  from  the  somewhat  limited 
activities  of  the  sewing  circle  and  the  ladies'  prayer 
meeting,  the  women  of  the  Church  have  developed  a 
great  missionary  organization  of  societies  and  Boards 
requiring  a  clearing  house  for  their  manifold  activities. 
Such  an  organization  is  the  last  achievement  of  the  Chi- 
cago Conference,  the  General  Council  of  Woman's 
Boards  of  Missions  whose  purpose  is  'to  secure  a  larger 
vision  of  the  mission  work  of  Presbyterian  women,  and 
to  unify  as  far  as  possible  the  policies  and  methods  of 
the  Woman's  Boards.' " 


The  present  officers  of  the  Woman's  Board  are  as  follows: 
President,  Mrs.  Fred  S.  Bennett;  First  Vice-President,  Mrs. 
Augustus  S.  Crane;  Second  Vice-President,  Mrs.  A.  C.  Mc- 
Millan; Third  Vice-President,  Miss  V.  May  White;  Record- 
ing Secretary,  Miss  Emma  Jessie  Ogg;  General  Secretary, 
Miss  Edna  Renard  Voss ;  Assistant  Secretary,  Miss  Mabel 
M.  Sheibley;  Treasurer,  Miss  Mary  Wallace  Torrence ;  Su- 
perintendent of  Schools,  Marshall  C.  Allaben;  Secretary  for 
Missionary  Education,  Mrs.  M.  J.  Gildersleeve ;  Secretary  for 
Young  People's  Work,  Miss  M.  Josephine  Petrie;  Editor  of 
Home  Mission  Monthly,  Miss  Theodora  Finks. 


XII 
THE  CALL  OF  THE  HOUR. 

IN  this  closing  chapter  of  a  historic  sketch  it  will 
not  be  inappropriate  to  face  about  for  a  time  and 
consider  to  what  present  duty  the  home  mission 
enterprise  is  called.  The  whirligig  of  these  swift  days 
has  run  history  and  prophecy  so  close  together  that  no 
contemplation  of  one  is  quite  complete  without  a  recog- 
nition of  the  other.  The  impetus  of  yesterday  flings 
us  into  tomorrow. 

By  the  title  of  this  chapter  we  would  stress  the  in- 
stant home  mission  call.  Like  the  war  through  which 
we  have  gone  that  duty  comes  upon  us  with  a  sort  of 
dramatic  military  action. 

The  spirit  of  reconstruction  is  abroad.  It  will  not  be 
confined  to  the  Peace  Conference.  It  is  world  recon- 
struction and  will  invade  every  realm  of  life.  The 
moral  and  spiritual  care  of  America  must  own  it,  not 
for  tomorrow  but  for  today.  Some  duties  decline  post- 
ponement. To  postpone  were  to  miss  the  floodtide  of 
opportunity.  To  now  miss  that  floodtide  in  the  mis- 
sionary call  were  to  set  back  the  cause  indefinitely. 
Some  occasions  refuse  to  repeat  themselves. 

The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  to  sketch  a  few  of  the 
conditions  of  adequate  missionary  response  to  the  reli- 
gious demands  of  the  times.  What  must  the  Church 
be  and  do  to  get  into  line  with  a  new  world  movement  ? 
No  longer  must  we  be  content  with  small  enterprises 

232 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  HOUR  233 

and  conventional  plans  and  methods.  To  fail  to  swing 
into  the  great  current  that  is  about  to  envelope  every 
shore  of  human  thought  and  activity  is  to  be  stranded. 
It  is  for  the  Church  to  choose  to  be  content  with  little 
local  eddies  on  the  margin  of  the  world  river,  or  to  ac- 
cept the  world-challenge  and  swing  out  for  big  con- 
quests, by  unusual  ways,  it  may  be,  but  by  compelling 
inspirations. 

New  Frontiers.  Of  course,  old  home  missionary 
duties  remain,  with  their  tried  methods  and  their  limi- 
tations. The  frontiers  are  not  exhausted.  New  ones 
are  coming.  The  march  to  which  the  fathers  set  their 
steps  must  go  on.  Congested  populations  will  be  more 
congested.  Rural  life  must  yet  be  saved  from  its  dis- 
couragements and  failures  by  the  old  applications  of 
Christian  truth.  Strange  languages  in  which  to  preach 
the  gospel  must  continue  to  be  learned.  Home  mis- 
sions must  learn  foreign  mission  lessons.  So  the  ma- 
chinery of  missions,  which  past  generations  have  taught 
and  the  present  generation  is  emphasizing,  must  still 
and  increasingly  be  pushed. 

But  there  is  suddenly  an  added  meaning  to  missions 
both  abroad  and  at  home.  In  ways  we  had  not  thought 
and  to  a  measure  we  had  not  dreamed  America  is  the 
cynosure  of  all  nations.  And  there  is  here  no  choice 
for  us.  Events  far  beyond  our  control  have  flung  us 
to  the  forefront  of  human  affairs.  And  the  most 
steadying  thought  that  can  come  to  us  In  these  days  is 
in  the  question,  **Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?" 

Christian  Ideals.  In  the  advance  to  which  the  na- 
tions are  springing  today  programs  of  material  inter- 
ests are  held  back.  The  question  that  most  concerns 
peoples  Is  not  that  of  physical  power  or  resources,  but 


234  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

that  of  moral  and  spiritual  ideals  and  their  place  in  the 
conduct  of  life.  Toward  them,  often  blindly  and  in 
revolutionary  ways,  the  nations  are  striving.  They  will 
not  be  content  till  they  shall  have  learned  to  live  and 
to  adjust  their  relations  to  each  other  somewhat  along 
those  lines.  It  is  not  national  egotism  to  say  that 
America  will  have  some  share  in  bringing  on  this  new 
order  of  Hfe.  How  shall  she  be  fitted  for  it?  By  what 
discipline  will  she  be  made  equal  to  so  tremendous  a 
calling  ? 

In  a  word,  we  must  in  fact  become  that  people  to- 
ward whom  our  announced  principles  point,  owning 
God  as  our  God  and  proposing  to  shape  our  national 
life  on  the  model  of  Christian  ideals.  Our  Christianity 
must  become  penetrative,  not  only  to  illumine  our 
thinking,  pointing  out  the  higher  life  to  which  men  and 
nations  should  attain,  but  also  and  chiefly  to  give  us 
spiritual  power  to  lift  us  to  the  level  of  our  principles. 
It  is  the  common  fault  of  individuals  that  their  profes- 
sions are  so  far  ahead  of  their  performances.  And  that 
equally  is  the  fault  of  nations.  They  seldom  attain  to 
the  best  of  their  thinking.  Their  flag  is  so  far  ahead  of 
their  columns.  How  shall  America  visualize  to  herself 
and  illustrate  to  others  the  high  moral  creed  she  re- 
ceived as  an  inheritance  and  has  in  part  worked  out  as 
an  achievement?  This  question  may  find  an  answer 
along  these  lines. 

Spiritual  Power.  I.  The  Church  must  more  deeply 
spiritualize  her  life  and  her  institutions.  If  she  is  to 
do  the  tasks  now  coming  she  must  have  a  vast  increase 
of  power.  The  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures  in  this  is 
that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  the  motive  power  of  the 
Church.    All  else  is  machinery.    This  is  the  dynamo. 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  HOUR  235 

The  standing  illustration  is  in  the  beginning  of  Chris- 
tian history.  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  tells  the  story. 
Only  a  spirit-filled  Church  could  be  of  any  use  in 
starting  the  regeneration  of  the  world.  What  marvel- 
ous things  happened  when  that  Spirit  descended  on  the 
little  company  in  the  upper  room.  The  Spirit  was 
"poured  out."  That  means  a  plentitude  of  power.  It 
overflowed  the  humble  lives  into  which  it  came  and 
shook  the  very  place  of  their  meeting.  And  it  produced 
alarming  effects.  The  people  ''were  amazed."  It  pro- 
duced consternation.    "Fear  came  upon  every  soul." 

Work  of  the  Spirit.  When  that  Pentecostal  pas- 
sion passed  on  into  the  quieter  life  of  the  Church  its 
main  characteristic  still  was  that  the  Holy  Ghost  di- 
rected and  controlled.  It  was  that  Spirit  who  "quick- 
ened" their  every  enterprise.  Into  their  daily  rounds 
of  service  we  are  told,  they  were  "led  by  the  Spirit." 
The  fruits  of  happy  and  courageous  lives  they  were 
permitted  to  live  were  "the  fruits  of  the  Spirit."  They 
were  spirit-surrounded  as  by  an  atmosphere,  so  that  it 
could  be  said  of  them  "they  walked  in  the  Spirit."  The 
marvels  they  wrought  are  nowhere  ascribed  to  their 
characters  or  their  endeavors,  but  always  to  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

In  a  way  the  mission  of  the  American  Church  is  not 
wholly  unlike  that  of  the  Apostolic  Church.  She  too 
encounters  an  overwhelming  mass  of  religious  indif- 
ference and  not  a  little  active  opposition.  Her  enemies 
are  indeed  deprived  of  fagot  and  sword.  Perhaps  a 
studied  disregard  is  even  more  difficult  to  overcome. 
Let  us  never  think  that  these  finer  times  have  taken 
away  the  need  of  a  Church  that  is  "filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost."    The  prime  question  of  the  day  is  not  one  of 


236  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

how  many  ministers,  churches  and  institutions  we  have 
but  "Have  you  received  the  Holy  Ghost?"  Alas,  if 
even  yet  the  question  comes  back,  ''We  have  not  known 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  had  come."  We  have  been  so  full 
of  our  good  purposes  and  plans  that  the  "still  small 
voice"  has  not  been  heard,  the  "rushing  wind"  even  has 
not  been  recognized. 

Immanence  o£  God.  The  Church  is  fortunate  in 
having  the  immanence  of  God  forced  upon  her  by  the 
crash  of  events.  She  has  somewhat  held  Him  off  in 
regions  of  distant  thought.  She  has  enshrined  Him  in 
her  creeds,  hidden  Him  in  her  cathedrals  and  been  con- 
tent. But  now,  through  the  flashes  of  our  World  War, 
He  has  come  out  and  claimed  His  place  in  human  af- 
fairs. He  refused  to  be  confined  to  pious  thoughts  of 
individuals  or  religious  plans  of  organizations.  He  will 
take  His  place  on  life's  road  whether  that  be  the  road 
of  the  lowliest  pilgrim  or  the  proudest  empire. 

H.  G.  Wells.  The  war  has  had  a  manifest  effect 
on  our  theology.  A  change  has  come  over  the  reasoning 
of  thinkers.  The  most  conspicuous  is  in  the  experience 
of  the  English  writer,  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells.  A  few  years 
ago  he  wrote  a  book  called  "The  Invisible  King."  It 
was  really  a  critique  on  the  Christian  God.  It  was  an 
attempt  to  devise  a  new  God  built  out  of  his  moral  con- 
sciousness. 

But  since  then  Mr.  Wells  has  been  brought  close  to 
the  war.  Its  terrible  experiences  gripped  his  theology. 
Bishop  Scrope,  of  whom  he  wrote,  was  a  comfortable 
ecclesiastic.  In  the  course  of  time  visions  of  a  possibly 
practical  and  helpful  Christianity  come  to  him.  Wells 
now  leaves  his  philosophy,  "There  grew  in  Scrope's 
mind  the  persuasion  that  he  was  in  the  presence  of 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  HOUR  237 

God."  The  war,  the  author  says,  brought  the  whole 
world  back  to  elemental  things.  God  was  everywhere 
about  him.  ''This  persuasion  was  over  him,  about  him, 
a  dome  of  protection,  a  power  in  his  nerves,  a  peace  in 
his  heart.    This  indeed  was  the  coming  of  God." 

The  change  of  attitude  thus  expressed  was  confirmed 
in  the  trenches.  Many  books  by  soldiers  have  declared 
how  doubts  vanish  in  the  light  of  exploding  shells 
and  how  men  who  never  had  confessed  God  before  find 
themselves  suddenly  sustained  by  the  sense  of  divine 
presence.  Henceforth,  no  more  shall  God  be  an  ab- 
straction. He  is  m  this  world,  the  master  of  all  its  af- 
fairs. A  Church  that  shall  realize  that  elemental  fact, 
that  will  understand  that  she  is  as  truly  walking  with 
God  as  the  two  disciples  were  walking  with  Jesus  on 
the  Emmaus  road,  will  not  lack  for  power.  It  will 
flame  in  her  messages  and  throb  in  her  institutions. 
The  world  will  not  pass  by  regardless.  The  old 
"amazement"  will  come  back  and  *'fear"  will  again  take 
hold  of  people. 

And  is  not  this  the  demand  of  the  times?  The  God 
whom  the  urgency  of  battle  has  thrust  into  the  con- 
sciousness of  thinkers  and  soldiers — the  God  to  them 
of  an  awful  emergency,  is  the  God  they  have  a  right 
to  expect  will  be,  above  all  emergencies,  the  daily  com- 
panion and  inspiration  of  His  people.  They  will  get 
skeptical  if  this  be  not  so. 

Standards  of  Service.  H.  The  Church  of  the  im- 
mediate future  must  be  a  Church  of  higher  standards 
of  service.  The  Christian  cause  cannot  be  adequately 
advanced  in  America  unless  the  Church  can  rise  to 
more  of  daily  heroisms.  The  heroic  is  not  confined  to 
battle  fields.    Rather  Christian  life  now  has  battles  of 


238  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

its  own  for  which  conventional  church  service  is  quite 
inadequate.  And  that  because,  as  in  any  conflict,  swift 
conclusions  must  come.  Missionary  adventure  to  meet 
the  inrush  of  new  conditions  must  be  swift.  Too  much 
is  at  stake  in  our  country  now,  both  as  regards  domes- 
tic Hfe  and  foreign  relations,  to  admit  of  slow  marches 
on  well  worn  roads. 

At  nearly  every  turn  of  the  national  life  the  Church 
meets  resistance, — sometimes  in  the  popular  thought, 
sometimes  in  conduct,  individual  or  social,  and  only  by 
a  purpose,  lofty  enough  and  swift  enough  to  be  called 
heroic,  can  she  make  the  conquests  on  which  the  future 
of  America  depends.  The  world  is  coming  to  a  battle 
not  to  be  measured  by  guns  or  swords.  It  is  wholly 
new  only  in  its  explosive  force.  It  is  as  old  as  history. 
The  "demos"  thronging  the  forum  in  Athens  with 
minatory  demands  has  modern  duplication  in  all  our 
centers  of  population,  whether  social,  political  or  in- 
dustrial. The  "demos"  is  abroad  now  as  never  before. 
Look  at  the  clashing  waves  of  popular  uprising  in 
Russia.  See  it  also  in  a  dozen  turbulent  nations.  It  is 
said  the  world  is  to  be  made  safe  for  democracy.  A 
more  difficult  task  and  just  as  insistent  is  to  make  de- 
mocracy safe  for  the  world. 

The  people  are  coming  to  their  own.  The  voice  of 
the  people,  which  is  said  to  be  the  voice  of  God,  sounds 
remote  and  faint  across  deserts  where  Armenians  are 
dying,  across  marshes  where  Poles  are  starving,  over 
mountains  where  Balkan  States  are  struggling  in  un- 
governed  fury  ;  but  it  will  be  general  and  clear  and  de- 
fiant when  the  war-engendered  carnival  is  past. 

And  in  one  form  or  another  it  is  coming  to  America. 
And  the  Church  of  Christ  has  the  onl}'  branch  that  can 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  HOUR  239 

sweeten  or  quiet  the  waters.  But  it  must  be  the  Church 
for  the  occasion.  It  must  get  back  on  apostoUc  ground 
and  have  the  courage  of  unusual  service  that  it  may  do 
unusual  things.  In  these  eventful  days  the  missionary 
adventure  has  somewhat  shared  the  common  exalta- 
tion. Preachers  have  flung  themselves  into  exhausting 
service  at  home  or  abroad.  Christians  have  proven 
themselves  stewards  of  the  gifts  of  God.  Money  has 
streamed  into  all  good  channels  in  most  unwonted 
measure.  Women  have  left  the  quiet  of  their  homes  to 
serve  wherever  they  were  called.  Girls  have  left  the 
home  or  the  school  and  put  on  the  uniform  of  service. 
It  has  been  a  willing  and  glorious  response  to  a  glo- 
rious day. 

Now  will  the  Church  that  has  been  lifted  to  the 
plane  of  sacrificial  service  keep  that  level  in  the  com- 
moner days?  Or  will  she  sink  back  to  the  common- 
place life  in  which  the  chief  requirement  was  that  our 
Christianity  be  respectable?  Two  million  soldiers  are 
coming  back.  Their  life  has  been  tense  and  lifted. 
Will  the  Church  of  Christ  appeal  to  them  unless  in  her 
they  find  some  of  the  temper  that  marked  their  army 
days?  Will  they  readily  heed  the  missionary  call  if  it 
has  no  bugle  note?  There  is  a  ringing  home  mission 
call  in  the  question,  "What  can  we  do  for  the  returning 
boys?" 

They  have  come  from  extraordinary  days.  An  ordi- 
nary Church  will  not  hold  them.  Not  only  must  our 
ideals  be  high.  This  they  have  always  been.  They 
must  become  instinct  with  a  certain  passion  of  service. 
They  must  prove  their  reality  by  their  power  to  wheel 
men  into  lines  of  daily  and  sacrificial  service.  Too  long 
have  we  merely  preached  at  people.     Now  we  must 


240  THE  _SOUI.  OF  AMERICA 

walk  among  them  and  enlist  them  and  go  with  them 
into  the  battle  for  righteousness  in  America.  It  will 
take  us  and  them  into  places  of  strange  speech,  of  alien 
life,  of  clashing  social  theories,  of  social  injustice  on 
the  one  hand  and  social  resentment  on  the  other,  into 
poverty  that  fosters  vice  and  vice  that  breeds  poverty, 
into  ignorance  that  does  not  understand  us  and  wicked- 
ness that  fights  us,  but  thereunto  as  never  before  is  the 
Church  called  today.  This  is  home  missions  in  its  most 
critical  aspect. 

A  New  Alignment.  III.  There  must  come  a  new 
alignment  of  Christian  forces  by  a  new  relation  of  sects 
to  each  other.  It  is  not  clear  there  will  come  an  answer 
to  Christ's  prayer  ''That  they  all  may  be  one"  by  a 
union  of  denominations.  Its  desirability  may  even  be 
doubted  if  by  "union"  be  meant  an  absolute  ecclesias- 
tical fusion.  There  may  not  be  an  abolition  of  regi- 
ments. But  there  must  be  one  army.  The  value  of 
unity  of  organization  and  of  command  has  just  been 
illustrated  on  the  great  world  theater.  It  is  no  less  es- 
sential for  the  Church.  This  may  be  one  of  the  by- 
products of  the  war.  How  finely  "the  boys"  stood  to- 
gether in  religious  thoughts  and  exercises !  How  nat- 
ural it  seemed  for  the  Jewish  soldier  to  press  the  Cross 
to  the  lips  of  a  dying  Catholic  comrade.  At  home  the 
Churches  have  been  busy  demonstrating  their  essential 
oneness;  even  though  it  were  done  sometimes  under 
the  pressure  of  a  coal  famine  it  was  worth  while.  They 
found  they  could  worship  and  work  together  even  after 
coal  was  plentiful.  Churches  have  been  so  busy  knit- 
ting and  giving  and  praying  together  that  have  not  had 
time  for  their  "isms."  And  when  the  time  comes,  as 
come  it  must,  when  "isms"  are  small  and  almost  neg- 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  HOUR  241 

lected  because  the  Kingdom  is  so  large  and  insistent  it 
will  not  mean  a  denial  of  what  has  been  precious  in 
church  history.  It  will  only  mean  an  ultimate  absorp- 
tion in  the  biggest  thing  on  earth. 

The  comradeship  of  sundered  Allies — Japan,  France, 
America,  suggests  a  higher  and  holier  alliance.  The 
united  ranks  of  Christendom  is  more  than  a  dream. 
On  its  realization  the  salvation  and  safety  of  the  world 
depend.  And  as  America  must  have  a  strong  hand  in 
the  final  outworking  of  a  world's  destiny  she  can  do  it 
only  by  a  federation  of  all  the  elements  of  her  strength. 
And  the  Church,  as  the  mightiest  of  those  elements, 
must  in  very  fact  be  one  Church.  Christ's  prayer  must 
not  longer  wait  for  answer. 

This  new  alignment  of  forces  will  not  be  secured  by 
the  leisurely  contemplation  of  terms  of  union.  No 
ecclesiastical  debates  can  bring  it  on.  Only  the  com- 
pulsion of  a  great  necessity.  Again  the  World  War 
suggests  the  illustration.  The  unity  of  the  army  came 
about  only  under  the  stress  of  battles.  In  earlier  stages 
there  were  soldiers  under  this  or  that  flag,  supremely 
led  by  this  or  that  national  leader.  It  was  the  pressure 
from  the  outside  that  forced  the  change  of  policy,  not 
any  conviction  coming  from  cabinets  or  councils.  And 
when  the  boys  got  into  the  trenches  they  were  all  one. 
The  democratization  was  accomplished  on  the  instant. 
High  and  low  in  the  social  scale,  plutocrat  and  coal 
miner,  learned  and  ignorant,  it  was  all  one  when  the 
guns  began  to  shoot.  The  stern  compulsion  of  neces- 
sity In  our  country  will  democratize  the  Church.  When 
we  realize  the  size  of  the  Church's  task  In  the  New 
Era,  brotherhood  will  spring  up  as  it  did  in  the  army. 
16 


242  THE  SOUL  OF  AMERICA 

Then  people  will  not  look  to  socialism  for  brotherhood. 
They  will  find  it  in  the  ranks  of  the  Church. 

Finally,  the  tasks  that  call  for  a  spiritual  Church, 
with  higher  standards  of  service  and  with  closed  col- 
umns and  a  democratic  spirit,  are  too  manifest  to  re- 
quire amplification.  In  general,  they  are  to  make 
Chirst's  ideals  and  policies  regnant  in  individual  lives 
and  in  the  thought  and  policies  of  communities  and 
states  and  nation.  In  particular,  with  the  end  of  the 
war  comes  a  thrilling  chance  for  the  Church  to  meet 
after-war  conditions.  Four  millions  of  soldiers  and 
sailors  are  to  be  demobilized.  It  will  be  the  work  not 
of  a  day  nor  a  year,  but  of  years.  The  Church  of 
Christ  must  welcome  them  home  by  a  loving  Christian 
ministry.  It  must  open  institutions  of  learning  for 
those  whose  educational  career  was  arrested, — institu- 
tions on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  It  must  meet  them 
in  the  various  war  industries  with  not  only  the  message 
of  the  gospel  but  all  its  helpful  service.  It  must  open 
ways  of  self-support  for  an  army  of  disabled  soldiers. 
It  must  make  smooth  and  safe  the  process  of  demobili- 
zation so  that  every  soldier  and  sailor  stepping  out  of 
the  ranks  will  step  into  something  else  worth  while.  It 
must  give  itself  with  abandon  to  the  Americanization 
of  all  our  people  in  the  best  that  that  word  implies. 
Then  only  will  we  be  true  to  such  an  opportunity  and 
responsibility  as  never  came  to  the  Church  of  God  be- 
fore. Let  us  have  a  new  confession  of  faith.  In  the 
words  of  Dr.  William  Adams  Brown : 

Dr.  W.  A.  Brown.  "A  confession  of  faith  in  the 
power  of  the  Church  under  the  vivifying  touch  of  the 
Divine  Spirit  to  lift  itself  above  the  parochial  tasks  with 
which,  like  the  nation,  it  has  been  too  long  content ;  to 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  HOUR  243 

become  conscious  anew  of  those  reserves  of  spiritual 
energy  laid  up  in  its  heart  and  brain  for  the  service  of 
the  new  world  waiting  to  be  born  ;  to  vindicate  through 
its  demonstration  of  the  fact  that  churches,  hke  free 
peoples,  can  function  effectively  and  unitedly  for 
great  causes,  those  principles  of  democracy  for  which 
we  and  our  Allies  are  fighting ;  and  so  to  recover  again 
for  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  that  place  of  leadership 
in  the  affairs  of  men  and  nations  to  which  we  believe  in 
the  Providence  of  Almighty  God  she  is  called." 


246  APPENDIX 

Superintendents  of  Schools 

George  F.  McAfee,  1893-1905.      David  R.  Boyd,  1910-1912. 
Robert  M.  Craig,  1906-1909.        Marshall  C.  Allaben,  1912- 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  officers  of  the  Woman's  Board 
of  Home  Missions  from  the  beginning: 

Presidents 

Mrs.  Ashbel  Green,  1878-1885.      Mrs.  Fred  S.  Bennett,  (Acting 
Mrs.  Darwin  R.  James,  1885-  President  1908-1909)    1909- 

1909. 

Secretaries 

Mrs.  F.  E.  H.  Haines,  1878-  Mrs.  O.  E.  Boyd,  1891-1892. 

1886.  Mrs.  F.  H.  Pierson,  1892-1902. 

Mrs.  A.  R.  Walsh,  1878-  Mrs.  J.  F.  Pingry,  1897-1903. 

Mrs.  D.  M.  Miller,  1882-1884.  Miss  V.  May  White,  1902- 

Miss  F.  A.  Dyer,  1884-1885.  Mrs.  Ella  A.  Boole,  1903-1909. 

Mrs.  C.  E.  Walker,  1886-1889.  Miss  Julia  Eraser,  1909-1913. 

Mrs.  D.  E.  Finks,  1886-1892.  Miss  Edith  Grier  Long,  1914- 
Mrs.  A.  C.  Miller,  1891-1894.  191 7. 

Miss  Edna  R.  Voss,  1918- 

Recording  Secretaries 

Mrs.  J.  D.  Bedle,  1878-1879.         Mrs.  Augustine  Sackett,  1903- 
Mrs.   S.    B.    Brownell,    1880-  1916. 

1896.  Miss  Emma  Jessie  Ogg,  1916- 

Miss    V.    May   White,    1896- 

1903. 

Young  People's  Secretaries 

Miss  E.  Wishard,  1893-1896.        Miss  M.  K.  Jones,  1896-1898. 
Miss  M.  J.  Petrie,  1898- 

Treasurers 

Mrs.  M.  E.  Boyd,  1878-1890.       Miss    Dora    M.    Fish,    1910 
Miss  S.  F.  Lincoln,  1890-1909.  1916. 

Miss   V.   May  White,    (Act-      Miss    Edna    R.    Voss,    1916- 
ing)   1909-1910.  1918. 

Miss  Mary  Wallace  Torrence,  1919- 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Adams,  Rev.  Robert  N..,  132 

Alaska,    1 17-126 

Alaskan  Statistics,    125 

Allison,   James,    School,.  214 
Allison,  Miss  Matilda  L.,  213 
American     Home     Mis- 
sion Society,   104 

Americanization,    226 

American     Presbyterian- 
ism,    27 

Anderson,  Rev.  Isaac,  . .   192 

Anderson,  James,   40 

Andrews,  Jedcdiah,    30 

Annin,  Rev.  John  A.,  . .  212 
Anthony,  Rev.  A.  W.,  ..  184 
Appeal  to  Scotland,  ....  59 
Asheville  Schools, 194 

Baer,  John  Willis 132 

Balch,  Rev.  Hezekiah,  . .  191 
Beach,  Dr.  Harlan  P.,  . .  201 

Bible    Translation,    96 

Blackburn,  Gideon,  .54,60,76 
Board   of   Church   Erec- 
tion,        y:^ 

Board     of     Home     Mis- 
sions, 

Incorporation   of,    y^ 

Organization  of,    64 

Brady,  Rev.  John  G.,   . .   120 

Brainerd,    David,    22 

Brown,      Rev.      William 
Adams,    242 


PAGS 

Calfee,  John  E., 195 

Christian   Ideals,    233 

Christian    Societies,    32 

Church  Federation,    170 

City  Missions,    150 

American    Parish,    . . .   158 
Church    Extension 

Committee  of,    156 

Difficulties  in,   153 

In  New  York,   155 

Principles  and  Policies,  162 

San   Francisco,    159 

Specialists  in,   151 

Coal  Mining  Region,  . . .  137 
Colonies,  Scotch  Interest 

in,   28 

Comity  in  Alaska, 123 

Community  Life   School, 

Kentucky,   222 

Community  Service,   196 

Cook,  Rev.  Charles  H.,  .     91 

Council  of  Women,   230 

Country  Church,   172 

Council  of  New  York,  186 

Federation  of 184 

Country  Life, 

Commission    of,    177 

Demonstration    Parish,  180 

Department  of,    179 

Depleted  Families,   . . .   176 

Surveys 179 

Volunteers  for,    181 


247 


248 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Cuba,   208 

Beginnings  in,    208 

Cooperative    Plans    in,  209 
Woman's      Board 

Schools  in,    226 

Cumberland  Body,   63 

Cumberland  Union,   109 

Czecho-Slovaks,     147 

Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence,       47 

Dickson,  Rev.  Cyrus,  . . .   106 

Division  of  Synod, 43 

Dixon,  Rev.  John,   132 

Doak,  Rev.  Samuel, 191 

Dodge,  Rev.  D.   Stuart,. 

132,  195 

Donaldson,    Rev.    Robert 

M.,   132 

Donaldson,    Rev.    Robert 

S.,  160 

Dorland-Bell  School,  . . .  224 

Dorland    Institute,    194 

Dorland,   Rev.   and  Mrs. 

Luke,     194 

Doughty,  Rev.  Francis,  .     23 

Duncan,  Rev.  Wm 120 

Dwight  School,    89 


PAGE 

Federal    Council    of    the 

Churches,    170 

Felton,  Ralph  A., 181 

Finks,  Mrs.  Delos  E.,  . .  229 
Finley,  Rev.  W.  E.,  ....   199 
First     Church     of     New- 
York,    41 

First  Executive  Commis- 
sion,        42 

First       Home       Mission 

Fund,   33 

First  Presbytery, 29 

First  Synod,   39 

Fiske,  John,  187-188 

Foreign    Missions,    46, 66 

Forsythe       Memorial 

School,    214 

Fullerton,     Rev.     Baxter 

P.,     132 

Fund  for  Pious  Uses,  ..     40 

Greenbaum,  Rev.  E.  S.,.  148 

Greene,    Rev.   J.    Milton, 

203, 208 

General  Council  Wom- 
an's Boards,    230 

Goodrich,    Miss    Frances 

L.,     198 


Early  Missionaries,    .... 

Eastman,  E.  Fred,   

Eliot,   John,    

Enlarged    Committee    on 

.  Missions,    

Executive  Committee  for 
the  West 


54       Haines,  Mrs.  F.  E.  H.,  . .  220 

181       Hall,  Rev.  John,   132 

20      Harris,  Rev.  J.  Will,  . . .  204 
Hellyer,  Rev.  H.  L.,  ....  148 
63       Henry  Kendall  College,.  90* 
Higgins,  Rev.  Frank  E.,  187 
71       Hildreth,     Dr.     E.     Ray- 
mond,      206 

Falcon,  Rev.  Jose,   215       Holt,  Rev.  Wm.  S.,   132 


INDEX 


249 


PAGi-: 
Home    Mission   Commit- 
tee,         41 

Home  Missions   Council, 

170,  185 

Rural   Fields    Commit- 
tee of,  182 

Home   Mission   Monthly,  229 
Hugh   O'Neill   Memorial,  204 

Indian   Evangelization,    .     19 

Indian  Missions,    45 

Indian   Massacre,    84 

Indian   Policy,    100 

Indian   Territory,    86 

Indians, 

Origin, 75 

Six  Nations,  The,    ...     78 

Pacific  Coast,  97 

Nez    Perces,    79 

The  Dakotas,   83 

The  Five  Tribes,   ....     86 

The  Pimas,   92 

The    Navajos 95 

Immigration,    134 

Board's  Dept.  of,   141 

Church's      Responsibil- 
ity,       139 

Immigration       Fellow- 
ship,      139 

Goverment  Relation  to,  138 

Net  results  of,  136 

Ports  of  Entry,   145 

United  Survey  of, 144 

Woman's  Board  Work 

in,    146 

Irwin,  Rev.  William.   ...    131 

Jackson,  Rev.  Sheldon,.. 

92,  112,  114,  119,  122 


PACK 

James,   Mrs.   Darwin   R., 

214,   229 

Jewish   Evangelization,    .   148 

Kearns,  Rev.  Wm.  H.,  . .  132 
Kellogg,  Miss  Francis  E.,  121 
Kendall,  Rev.  Henry,  . .  106 
Kephart,  Rev.  W.  J.,  ...  212 
King,  Rev.  Wm.  R., 133 

Labor  Temple,  157 

Latin-America,      General 

conditions  in,   201 

Laura       Sunderland 

School,    193 

Laurel   Hospital,    199 

Lawrence,  Rev.  Thomas,  195 

Lindsley,  Rev.  A.  L.,  ...  118 

Local   Supervision,    71 

Logging  Camps,    186 

Lord  Cornbury,   35 

Makemic,  Francis,    25 

Marquis,  Rev.  John  A.,  .  133 

Mayflower,    15 

Mecklinburg  Declaration,  189 

Menaul  School,   214 

Merle-Smith,    Rev.    Wil- 
ton,     133 

Mexican   Schools,    224 

Missionary  Education,  . .  228 
Missionary  Impulse,  ...  31 
Missionary  Magazine.  . .  70 
Missionary  Societies,  ...  58 
Missions  to  New  Jersey,  26 
Missions  to  Pennsylva- 
nia,       26 

Alormon   Field,    no 


250 


INDEX 


PACE 

Morse,     Rev.     Hermann 

N. i8i 

Mountaineers,     187 

First   Academies,    191 

Mountain  Schools,   ...  193 

Rocky  Ridge,    I93 

Mt.  Pleasant,   113 

McAfee,  J.  Ernest, 132 

McAfee,  Rev.  George  F.,    88 

McBeth,  Miss  Sue, 81 

McDowell,  Rev.  John,  . .  133 
MacFarland,  Mrs.  A.  R.,  119 
McFarland,  Rev.  D.  F.,  212 
McLean,  Rev.  Robert,...  216 
McLean,  Rev.  Robert  N.,  216 
McMillan,    Rev.    Duncan 

J.,   113,131 

McNutt,    Rev.    Matthew 
B.,    181 

Native  Pastors,   82 

Native  Presbytery,   85 

New  Frontiers,    233 

New  Mexico, 

Beginnings  in,    211 

Congregational  Church 

in,   , 211 

Dyer,    Father,    212 

Methodist  Church  in,.  211 

School   Work,    213 

Nuyaka  School, 90 

Occupation  of  the  West,  68 

Odell,  Rev.  E.  A., 208 

Old  Northwest,   67 

Olin,  Harvey  C,  132 

Ordway,  Miss  Jennie,  . .  206 


PAGE 

Pacific    Coast,    Reaching 

of,    107 

Packard,  Dr.  George  H.,  199 
Persecutions     in     Mary- 
land,         24 

Phraner,  Rev.  Wilson,  ..  218 
Pierson,    Mrs.    Frederick 

H.,    229 

Plan  of  Union, 51 

Pond,  Rev.  Samuel  W.,.     83 

Pond,  Gideon  A.,   83 

Porto  Rico, 

Approach  to,    202 

Comity  Plans  in, 202 

Community  Service  in,  225 
Educational      Question 

in,    203 

Evangelical  Union  in,.  207 

Polytechnic    Institute,.  204 

Training  School  in,   . .  205 

Presbyterial    Authority,  .     61 

Presbyterian    Church    in 

U.    S.,    Organization 

of,    105 

Presbyterian       Coopera- 
tion,    18, 50 

Presbyterian     Govern- 

ment,   17 

Presbyterian  Patriots,   . .     48 

Public  Schools,   195 

Puritans,  15 

Reindeer,  Alaskan,  122 

Religious  Literature,   ..46,53 

Reunion,   105 

Riggs,  Rev.  Stephen  H.,  83 
Roberts,  Rev.  Wm.  C,  . .  131 
Root,  Rev.  E.  Talmadge,  184 


INDEX 


251 


PAGE 

Rural  Changes,   175 

Rye  Hospital,  206 

Salt  Lake  Collegiate  In- 
stitute,     112 

San  Juan  Hospital,    206 

Santa  Domingo,  Mission 

to,   208 

Scotch  Irish,   43,  187 

Self-Supporting    Synods,  127 

General  Principles  of,.  129 
Shriver,  Rev.  Wm,  P.,,. 

I37i  160 

Snow   Hill,    30 

Social  Service,   165 

Bureau  of,    166 

New       Responsibilities 

in,   170 

Presbyterian      Leader- 
ship in,   168 

Principles  of,    165 

Society   for   Propagation 

of  the  Gospel,    19 

Spanish     and     French 

Population,    74 

Spanish-Speaking  Amer- 
icans, 
Interdenomina  t  i  o  n  a  I 

Council  on,    216 

Work  among,   215 

Spaulding,  Rev.  H.  H.,  .  80 
Standing    Committee    of 

Missions,    52 

Statistics,  Indian,   102 


PACP, 

Stelzle,  Rev.  Charles,  ...  165 
Stevenson,     Miss     Flor- 
ence,     194 

Synodical     Home     Mis- 
sions,       57 

Taft,  Miss  Anna  B.,  .  180,  199 
Theological  Education,  45,69 
Thompson,   Rev.   Charles 
L.,    131 

Walsh,  Mrs.  A.  R., 220 

Western  Colleges,   68 

Wharton,  Rev.  R.  L.,  210,226 
Whitman,  Dr.  Marcus,  .  80 
Williamson,  Rev.  Thomas 

S.,   83 

Wilson,      Rev.      Warren 

H.,    169,  172, 179 

Wishard,     Rev.     Samuel 

E .17 

Woman's  Board, 

Change  of   Policy,    . . .    196 

Incorporation   of,    220 

Officers,   231,  246 

Organization  of,    219 

Policy   of,    221 

Statistics,    228 

Woman's     Executive 

Committee, 114 

Women's    Societies,    218 

Young,    Rev.    S.    Hall... 

120,  122,  125 


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